US President Joe Biden has announced that residents of Hong Kong will be granted visas that will allow them to stay in the US for 18 months.
Biden said that these visas would be granted to give people from Hong Kong a temporary ‘safe haven’ in America in the wake of crackdowns on civil liberties and human rights in the city state by the Chinese government.
The US move follows the passing of a controversial ‘national security law’, greatly expanding Beijing’s powers in Hong Kong, which has long been a fairly free part of the People’s Republic.
Since the law came into effect in June, 100 opposition politicians and major media figures have been arrested by police on various charges relating to ‘undermining national security’. Wide-scale protests against the law by Hong Kong residents have been stifled.
The move by the US is likely to cause further tension between Washington and Beijing, with relations between the two becoming increasingly strained.
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, was quoted by the BBC as saying the move was an attempt to ‘grossly interfere in China’s internal affairs’.
Earlier this year the United Kingdom introduced a similar scheme, allowing Hong Kong residents to stay for up to five years, with a path to permanent residency and, eventually, citizenship.
[Image: Studio Incendo, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=101986237]