Beijing claims that the UK wants to make Hong Kongers second-class citizens with British national overseas BNO visa scheme, after new figures show almost 90,000 people have applied from the former British colony to resettle in the UK.
The UK is trying to turn many Hong Kong residents into second-class citizens in the UK and reap benefits from this, foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in a weekly press conference on Wednesday.
In the first nine months since its launch, around 88,000 Hong Kongers have applied for the new visa pathway to the UK, according to a report released by the UK foreign office on Tuesday.
The BNO resettlement visa scheme, which began in January, was introduced as a part of the UK's response to Beijing s imposition of a national security law on Hong Kong in June, which has since been used by local authorities to stamp out political dissent and call for democracy.
Chinese and Hong Kong officials have argued that the law is necessary to restore order and stability, but long queues of travellers leaving for the UK have been seen at Hong Kong airport in the last few months after the law was imposed.
Hong Kongers born before Chinese rule was returned to Chinese rule in July 1997 are eligible for a BNO passport. The BNO visa scheme expands the rights of BNO holders, allowing them and their dependents to live a six-year pathway to citizenship in the UK.
In the first five years, the UK has predicted that as many as 330,000 Hong Kongers will resettle in the UK. In January of this year, Beijing announced that the BNO passport will no longer be recognized as a valid travel document.
The UK is obsessed with issuing semi-annual reports to attack and smear China and interfere in Hong Kong affairs out of an ideological bias. The spokesperson said China strongly deplores and firmly rejects this.
The report addressed major political developments from January to June including the mass arrest of 55 pro-democracy figures, the forced closure of the pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper and Beijing's overhaul of the city's electoral processes reducing direct democratic representation.
Since the introduction of the national security law, the mainland Chinese and Hong Kong authorities have used the law and related institutions against all opposition, free press and civil society in Hong Kong, UK foreign secretary Liz Truss wrote in the report.