UK Think Tank Policy Exchange, chaired by former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, published on Nov 22 a strategic report (1) entitled, "A Very British Tilt" (Foreword by former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe). The report states that "Britons in the Indo-Pacific" include "3 million BNO" holders in Hong Kong. The "stronger measures" recommended by it to counter the HK National Security Law imposed by China on HK include "Fast-track the Prime Minister’s original idea to offer citizenship to all UK overseas passport holders in Hong Kong; Support measures to recreate Hong Kong civil society inside UK...; Build an international contact group around...China’s ongoing aggressions in Hong Kong." That implies that the UK may turn all BNO holders in Hong Kong into British citizens per se (2).
In view of the UK Government's recent sharp increase of its military budget by 16.5 billion pounds and Boris Johnson's going to send Queen Elizabeth the aircraft carrier to the Far East, people begin to suspect that the UK is minded to take Hong Kong back in order to reenter the Trans Pacific Partnership, which is also recommended in the report (3). Mind you, Britain no longer has any territory in the Indo-Pacific Region except for the negligible Pitcairn Islands with 50 inhabitants.
When the UK grants all BNO holders in Hong Kong full British citizenship, surely Chairman Xi Jinping will get mad, and China, in revenge, may put every HK resident in a concentration camp for massive extermination.
Notes
1. https://policyexchange.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/A-Very-British-Tilt.pdf
2. cf. Martin Oei, 25 Nov 2020 video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z_YA0fMY_0&t=165s
3. ditto
Photo credit: Ben Townsend