‘Despicable and reprehensible’: China lashes out at UK enlargement of visa scheme following Jimmy Lai conviction – Imperial Wire

China’s embassy in London Tuesday criticized the U.Ok.’s choice to broaden a visa program for Hong Kong residents, calling the transfer an interference in its inner affairs after a court docket sentenced pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai to twenty years in jail beneath a nationwide safety regulation.

The U.Ok. on Monday expanded the British Nationwide Abroad (BNO) visa scheme on Monday to permit kids of BNO standing holders — who have been beneath 18 on the time of Hong Kong’s handover to mainland China in June 1997 — to use for the route independently of their dad and mom.

“BNO has misled Hong Kong residents to depart their houses, solely to face discrimination and hardship within the U.Ok., dwelling as second-class residents,” an embassy spokesperson stated in an announcement in Chinese language translated by CNBC.

The embassy described the scheme enlargement as “despicable” and “reprehensible.”

“China has all the time firmly opposed the UK’s manipulation and interference in China’s inner affairs,” the embassy spokesperson stated.

The scheme was launched in 2021 after Beijing imposed the sweeping nationwide safety regulation on Hong Kong. Since then, over 230,000 individuals have been granted visas, and nearly 170,000 have relocated to the U.Ok.

The diplomatic tensions adopted the sentencing of Lai by a Hong Kong court docket on Monday, in one of many metropolis’s most outstanding prosecutions. That was the heaviest penalty ever meted out beneath the nationwide safety regulation.

The 78-year-old founding father of the now-shuttered Apple Every day newspaper was a vocal critic of Beijing and was among the many first outstanding figures arrested in August 2020. He was jailed on fees of conspiring to collude with overseas forces and publishing seditious supplies. Lai pleaded not responsible to all counts.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer raised the case with Chinese language President Xi Jinping throughout a go to to Beijing final month, calling for the discharge of Lai, who’s a British citizen. Critics and Lai’s household have argued that the U.Ok. didn’t take ample and concrete steps to reverse the course.

The sentencing confirmed how the Beijing-imposed nationwide safety regulation has “criminalised dissent, prompting many to depart the territory,” the British authorities stated in an announcement, including that it’ll “quickly have interaction [with Beijing] additional on Mr Lai’s case.”

The expanded visa route got here amid what the British authorities described as a “deterioration of rights and freedoms” in Hong Kong. The federal government estimated that 26,000 individuals will arrive within the U.Ok. over the subsequent 5 years.

Hong Kong’s chief government John Lee stated Tuesday that Lai deserved the tough sentencing for all of the hurt that he had carried out, together with “utilizing Apple Every day to poison the minds of residents” and “colluding with overseas forces to take sanctions and hostile actions in opposition to China and Hong Kong.”

Different governments have renewed requires Lai’s launch following the ruling. Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of State, referred to as the ruling “unjust and tragic” and urged the authorities to grant humanitarian parole for Lai.