National security law: Beijing’s retaliation against London’s BN(O) pathway ‘down to loyalty test’ for Hong Kong public officers
- Saga centres on possible action by China to bar BN(O) passport owners from holding public office in Hong Kong
- But challenge for central government would be how to avoid encouraging even more city residents with the status to take up British offer
Beijing’s retaliation plans against London offering Hongkongers holding British National (Overseas) passports a pathway to the right of abode boil down to making public officers with such documents prove their loyalty, analysts have said.
It underscored Beijing’s determination to yield full compliance from the Hong Kong government officials, some of whom it had grown to distrust, a social science scholar and a lawyer said.
Politicians and commentators from the pro-establishment camp, meanwhile, pointed out that another retaliatory move Beijing was said to be contemplating against BN(O) holders who moved to Britain – namely, stripping them of the right to vote in local elections – would have the more desirable effect of penalising all those who took advantage of the special status, not just civil servants.
All acknowledged, however, that it would be much harder to defend legally, as disenfranchising citizens would throw up difficult questions as to whether others who held multiple passports could also face the same fate.