Boris Johnson has offered three million Hong Kong citizens the chance to live and work in the UK after China defied global opposition to impose a new national security law on the region.
The UK prime minister on Wednesday told the House of Commons that he will go ahead with the move after China imposed new security laws on the semiautonomous region on Tuesday.
The new laws, opposed by the UK, European Union and United States, are designed to curtail anti-government protests in the region. Hong Kong police carried out nearly 200 arrests on Wednesday.
In retaliation, the UK government has offered 5 years of limited right to remain to all Hong Kong citizens eligible to apply for a British national overseas passport, and their dependents - some 3 million people.
Arrivals will be eligible to apply for settled status in the UK for a further 12 months beyond the initial 5-year period, after which they would be eligible for full UK citizenship.
Johnson today told Members of Parliament: "The enactment and imposition of this national security law constitutes a clear and serious breach of the Sino-British joint declaration.
"It violates Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy and is in direct conflict with Hong Kong basic law.
"The law also threatens the freedoms and rights protected by the joint declaration."
He added: "We made clear that if China continued down this path we would introduce a new route for those with British national overseas status to enter the UK, granting them limited right to remain with the ability to live and work in the UK and thereafter to apply for citizenship - and that is precisely what we will do now."
The UK public is broadly supportive of the move to welcome citizens from Hong Kong by a margin of 61% to 11% according to a Populus poll this week commissioned for the China Research Group.
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