I recently pointed to a Matt Yglesias tweet that called on the US government to punish China by allowing Hong Kong residents to migrate to the US. Alas, the US government seems to be moving in the opposite direction, restricting the migration of highly talented Chinese students.
Fortunately, the UK government has better judgment:
The UK has set itself on a collision course with China after broadening its offer on extended visa rights from 350,000 to almost 3m Hong Kong residents.
After Beijing announced plans this week to proceed with the imposition of a national security law on Hong Kong, UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab retaliated with an “unprecedented” pledge to expand visa rights for British National (Overseas) passport holders in Hong Kong from six to 12 months and “provide a pathway to future citizenship”.
Hong Kong has many highly talented entrepreneurs that would provide a boost to any country to which they emigrated.
PS. Does anyone know where the 3 million figure comes from? Is that the number of Hong Kong residents who were living there back in 1997, when Hong Kong was still a British colony?
Maybe the US could offer visas to the other 4 million HK residents.
READER COMMENTS
Daniel Hill
May 30 2020 at 3:04pm
We (the west) could have lot more influence in the world, without resort to military force, if we did this more. Back when the trouble in Syria erupted, I proposed that the US president call up Assad and say the following: you have six months to solve this peacefully otherwise we’re going to offer every educated Syrian a green card. How would you like trying running your country without doctors or engineers?
Scott Sumner
May 30 2020 at 3:38pm
Good point.
mike
Jun 1 2020 at 12:23am
this is basically a modified form of increased skilled immigration (while limiting, eliminating unskilled immigration). I know this wouldn’t pass caplan’s immigration policy, but do you think this would pass muster with most deomocrats / liberals in terms of acceptable policy? I would highly support this as a policy (pretty much points based immigration that canada, australia and I think new zealand as well have), but i don’t think it would be supported by the left, because frankly if you accept this then it also argues for a heavy push against illegal / unskilled immigration
Thomas Hutcheson
Jun 1 2020 at 10:22am
The point system for skilled (and skill-able = students with right to remain after graduation) immigration would have a high NPV, but it does not imply “a heavy push against illegal / unskilled immigration.” Unskilled immigrants make a much smaller net contribution to the net incomes of existing residents than skilled immigrants, they are still positive.
David Henderson
May 30 2020 at 4:09pm
Great idea!
Alan Goldhammer
May 30 2020 at 6:13pm
Add me to the list of supporters! A fair number of Syrians have made it to the US over the past five or so years.
Matthias Görgens
May 30 2020 at 9:40pm
Alas, it seems it’s easier to get the electorate to back violence and war than to get them to support more immigration.
At least in many countries.
LC
May 31 2020 at 11:39pm
Great idea. As for the current situation, why limit ourselves to visas for Hong Kong? Why not let all the educated Chinese who want a better life and freedom of expression immigrate? Let’s see how long CCP one party rule can last when a large portion of the population has voted with their feet.
Gordon
May 30 2020 at 8:22pm
A quick bit of googling reveals that Hong Kong had a population of 6.5 million in 1997. I was thinking the 3 million might have more to do with language and approximately 3.45 million in HK speak English.
Matthias Görgens
May 30 2020 at 9:41pm
3 Million might be who’s still alive and in Hong Kong from the 6.5 Million in 1997. People don’t get younger.
Gordon
May 31 2020 at 4:38pm
Median age in HK was around 36 at the time of the turn over so I’m doubtful that is the explanation. Plus if immigration was only eligible for those who were alive in HK in 1997, it would split up families. And now that I’ve read the news blurb Scott shared more carefully and doing a quick bit of googling, there are 2.9 million passport holders in HK. So that seems to be the reason for the 3 million figure.
David Levey
May 31 2020 at 8:20am
I second your praise of the UK’s generous offer. However, to the extent that the Chinese have developed Shanghai as an alternative financial gateway, an exodus of talent from Hong Kong may not hurt them as much as it would have in the past.
P Burgos
May 31 2020 at 7:42pm
I have never been to Hong Kong, but I have been to Shanghai and lived in Jiangsu. I suspect that Hong Kong is a nicer place to live, if only because air quality in Southern China is much better than air quality in Eastern China. Also, no real winter, and closer flights to tropical getaways and other countries.
P Burgos
May 31 2020 at 7:43pm
The point being that Shanghai won’t have the same power to draw in foreign talent as Hong Kong.
Scott Sumner
Jun 1 2020 at 1:14pm
I agree, but it will hurt the CCP a little. And that’s all you can realistically ask for.
Ricky
May 31 2020 at 9:47am
The ban involves students who have relationships with the CCP, and the PLA. In January, a leading academic at Harvard was arrested for concealing his work and involvement at the Wuhan laboratory. A rather ominous sign for most of us. In addition to that, graduate students have access to university servers, holding invaluable data and information – such as the emails of faculty, correspondence that surely includes sensitive research material.
There is also a misconception that graduate students are leaving China to stay in the United States. In some cases, this is true. But that also leads to additional security risks since many of these students go on to spy for the organizations they work for. But the fact is that most of these students do NOT stay in the United States. And that is because business prospects are much better in China, then the U.S..
These Chinese students are recruited on school vacation – usually after their first year – and are expected to comply. Like most criminal organizations, refusal is not an option.
The best example of this is the 33 year old Jean Dong, AKA CCP puppet, who attended school in Australia when she was 18, was immediately self employed after (with the help of CCP funding), attended parties at the Chinese embassy to rub shoulders with influential Victoria politicians like Malcom Turnbull, and then used those contacts to place a wedge between the Victorian state and the central govt. A strategy that has clearly worked.
And finally, there is a big difference between Hong Kong and Mainlanders. The UK is not allowing 3M Chinese graduate students to enter the U.K. So I’m not quite sure how you can make that comparison.
Scott Sumner
May 31 2020 at 12:10pm
I’m not very worried about Chinese grad students spying on the US, which is a trivial problem relative to the benefits they bring to our country.
Phil H
May 31 2020 at 11:12am
I very much hope it comes to fruition, but I don’t think very many people will use this option if it becomes available. Still, a step in the right direction.
Michael S.
Jun 1 2020 at 5:05pm
I read that the 3.5 millions are those who maintained their British Nationals Overseas passports. Apparently, the other half let them expire (I can’t fathom how they could have done that)
As to what other commenters said: I don’t think hurting China is the point. First and foremost, it’s about saving millions of people. Second, and a nice bonus, is boosting the own economy. But that’s just a former East German speaking…
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