‘If I Don’t Get Out . . . ‘ : Britain Needs Answers for 3.25 Million Subjects in Hong Kong

“If I don’t get out of Hong Kong by 1997, I’m finished, I know it.” The quiet desperation in Li Qiang’s words reflects the growing anxiety of millions of Hong Kong residents.

They, like the 42-year-old laborer, are consumed with fear and uncertainty about what will happen when the British return Hong Kong to China seven years from now.

Li Qiang and about 45,000 others flocked to the Hong Kong Immigration Department last week on the final day to apply for a special program that will give full British citizenship to 50,000 families, about 225,000 persons, who will be allowed to emigrate to Britain.

The British Nationality Act is woefully inadequate and unfair. Only 4% of Hong Kong’s 5.8 million residents are eligible to emigrate, although 3.25 million already hold restricted British nationality documents.

That’s not very generous for a nation that has enjoyed the fruits of Hong Kong since 1898. Britain is simply not fulfilling its moral obligation to Hong Kong.

The British maintain that the emigration program was designed to favor those skilled, educated and entrepreneurial individuals who are critical to Hong Kong’s continued prosperity.

They need the assurance of full British citizenship so they can continue to work in Hong Kong while keeping the option to leave in 1997, when Britain’s 99-year lease ends.

In 1984, China promised to maintain Hong Kong’s freewheeling economic and social system under a program called “one country, two systems.” But the people of Hong Kong lost confidence after pro-democracy demonstrations in China were crushed in June, 1989. Since then, more than 1,000 residents a week have left.

Britain alone can’t absorb the 3.25 million Hong Kong residents who already have papers. But it has used the entrepreneurial flair and capital of Hong Kong. In return it should expand the emigration program.