Australia will ‘continue to welcome’ Hong Kong residents as calls mount to match UK’s offer of safe haven MPs urge the government to help people fearing China’s planned security laws
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/04/australia-will-continue-to-welcome-hong-kong-residents-as-calls-mount-to-match-uks-offer-of-safe-haven
The Australian government has declared it will “continue to welcome” Hong Kong residents, but it won’t be drawn on calls for it to match the UK’s offer of safe haven for people fearing China’s planned security laws.
Australian parliamentarians from across the political spectrum are urging the government to help the people of Hong Kong, amid growing international concern about the impact of Beijing’s decision on the city’s rights and freedoms and on the stability of the international finance hub.
The British foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, revealed he had asked Australia and other partners to consider “burden-sharing if we see a mass exodus from Hong Kong”.
The UK is holding open the prospect of offering residency and work rights to as many as 3 million people, while the US is considering letting people who no longer “feel comfortable” in Hong Kong to move there. The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, indicated he was also talking to allies, including Australia, about further responses.
On Wednesday Beijing lodged “stern representations” in response to the UK’s offer, warning it to “pull back before it’s too late, abandon its Cold War and colonialist mentality”.
Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, joined her counterparts from Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US for a teleconference to discuss the situation in Hong Kong earlier this week.
The group “reiterated their concerns about Hong Kong in light of the Chinese government’s proposed national security law”, according to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
When asked about the possibility of Australia offering to resettle Hong Kong residents, the department’s spokesperson pointed to existing avenues: “Outside the current Covid-19 restrictions, Hong Kong people can apply for a range of relevant visa categories to work and live in Australia.
“Our people-to-people links include close family connections, business ties and shared values. These and the considerable talent in Hong Kong underscore why we continue to welcome Hongkongers to Australia.”
The leader of the Greens, Adam Bandt, called on the government to follow the lead of the UK and offer safe haven for those “who are concerned about the growing risk of authoritarianism in Hong Kong”.
Declaring the national security law a “dangerous” attempt to silence the people of Hong Kong, Bandt called on the prime minister, Scott Morrison, to “follow the lead of Bob Hawke, who after the bloody Tiananmen Square massacre showed tremendous compassion by opening Australia’s arms to Chinese people fleeing tyranny”.
“If Boris Johnson is opening the door to potentially millions of people fleeing Hong Kong, it’s unacceptable that we’re not offering anyone refuge,” Bandt said.
Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, a hawkish Liberal party backbench senator, said Australia needed to “join with our allies to take strong and decisive action against Beijing’s skulduggery”.
The Labor MP Peter Khalil said if China did not meet its commitment to guarantee Hong Kong’s rights, or diminished the city’s unique status, it could lead to a potential exodus. The Australian government would have to respond to the “emerging and fast-moving situation”.
Khalil said he had met with many Hong Kong students in Australia who had told him “of the violent threats being made to them and their families because of their support for the protests back in Hong Kong”.
Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Penny Wong, said the UK had a special responsibility to lead on this issue, should the need emerge, but the Australian government “could consider how existing visa arrangements can be used to respond to any emerging need, and we would expect it to act with compassion”.
The Liberal MP Dave Sharma, a former ambassador to Israel, said Australia’s highest priority for now should be ensuring Hong Kong’s Basic Law was respected and the handover agreement honoured. “Planning for other contingencies is not something we should be discussing publicly right now.”
The Liberal senator David Fawcett, who chairs the joint standing committee on foreign affairs, defence and trade, joined counterparts from the UK, Canada and New Zealand in calling on the UN to appoint a new special envoy to monitor the impact of the law on Hong Kong.
In a letter to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, they raised alarm over “the erosion of the rule of law and the increasingly serious and urgent human rights situation in Hong Kong”.
“Our concerns are heightened at this time in the light of the Chinese Communist Party’s record of abuses when faced with dissent from its rule, such as the Tiananmen Square massacre which occurred 31 years ago this week,” wrote the group.
The imposition of sweeping national security laws on the semi-autonomous region, bypassing its legislature, has been labelled the “end of Hong Kong” and a breach of China’s international obligations.
Under the 1997 Sino-British declaration, when Hong Kong was returned to China by Britain, the region was guaranteed 50 years of a high degree of autonomy under the “one country two systems” principle.
Its mini-constitution, the Basic Law, obliges Hong Kong to enact national security laws and the failure to do so for 23 years has been used to justify Beijing’s move. But other obligations, including universal suffrage for the people of Hong Kong, have also been left unmet.
Since mass protests erupted in Hong Kong a year ago – sparked by a bill which would allow for extradition to China – Beijing has made increasing encroachments on Hong Kong’s autonomy, including declarations by its offices in Hong Kong that Basic Law provisions did not apply to them.
Martin Lee, a barrister, former legislator and co-drafter of the Basic Law, said the offers by foreign governments to help Hongkongers were “generous” but not enough.
He said Beijing had clearly breached its treaty obligations, which it had made great efforts in 1997 to have supported by the international community and registered in the UN, precisely to ensure Hong Kong’s elite residents and businesses did not flee.
“I want the international community to put their heads together and come up with a multinational sustainable solution for Hong Kong,” he said.
Lee Cheuk-yan, a veteran activist who alongside Martin Lee was arrested in a widely condemned crackdown by Hong Kong authorities earlier this year, said Hong Kong people “don’t just want an exit”.
“I think it’s a shame in a way that they only offer us an exit, and do not offer to stand by us in our fight for Hong Kong,” he said.
With the Australian government’s relationship with China already under strain over early calls for a coronavirus inquiry, the Coalitio has appeared to tread carefully on the Hong Kong developments, issuing statements of concern jointly with likeminded countries including the US, the UK and Canada, rather than speaking out on its own.
But Australian politicians say there is precedent for the government to respond with special programs in times of particular need.
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