...pro-Brexit British prime minister, succeeding no-Brexit Theresa May. BoJo is noted as much for his sparkling personality and his hair as for his Conservative policies....
said he will give as many as three million Hong Kong residents the chance to seek refuge and a new life in the UK if China presses ahead with plans to impose a new security law on the former British colony.
The premier’s intervention marks an escalation in London’s pressure on Beijing over its proposals for a law that democracy advocates say will erode the rights and freedoms of the people of Hong Kong.
"Many people in Hong Kong fear their way of life, which China pledged to uphold, is under threat," Johnson wrote in an article published in The Times of London newspaper. "If China proceeds to justify their fears, then Britannia could not in good conscience shrug our shoulders and walk away; instead we will honor our obligations and provide an alternative."
The Chinese government said Johnson’s comments amounted to foreign interference in internal affairs.
The offer of a path to citizenship, first made by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab last week, had already provoked a stern response from China. While Johnson’s proposal is unlikely to influence Beijing to change its position, a point British officials accept, it will be broadly popular among his Conservative Party colleagues who are increasingly hostile toward China.
Johnson’s government says a re-set of relations with Beijing will be necessary in the aftermath of the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...pandemic and officials are re-examining whether to go ahead with Chinese telecoms giant Huawei Technologies Co. as a provider of equipment for Britannia’s next generation mobile networks.