China Targets U.K.’s Hong Kong Passports Over Citizenship Plan

HONG KONG—China mentioned it would no for a longer period identify a style of British passport that tens of millions of Hong Kong individuals are qualified for, as tensions rise between the nations more than the U.K.’s plan to supply a pathway to citizenship for the passport holders.

Chinese authorities will not take into account the British Nationwide Overseas passport a valid travel doc starting up Sunday—the working day the U.K.’s plan starts—and retains the right to just take more steps, Overseas Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian mentioned Friday, according to condition broadcaster China Central Tv. Hours earlier, the British authorities experienced introduced a lot more specifics of the visa plan, which was designed in reaction to China imposing countrywide safety legislation on Hong Kong in June.

The shift is a lot more symbolic, with constrained effects on holders of BNO passports, for the reason that individuals traveling by Hong Kong and mainland China border checkpoints commonly use their Hong Kong identification card and a “return household card” issued by Chinese authorities, respectively. A passport is used only upon entering and exiting other international locations.

China and the U.K. have exchanged barbs more than China’s managing of Hong Kong, a previous British colony that was returned to Beijing in 1997. The U.K. granted the right to a BNO passport for Hong Kong people born in advance of the handover as section of the sovereignty offer, even though it formerly conferred no citizenship rights.