Almost 3 million Hong Kong natives eligible to apply for a British Nationals Overseas passport may soon be providedwith the right to move to the UK and an official path toward British citizenship in the aftermath of the Chinese government passing a law that effectively ends the territory’s autonomy under the “one country, two systems” arrangement. The move, announced jointly by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Home Office, is the most dramatic, bold and unambiguously morally correct action taken by the Foreign Office in at least a generation. And it comes after years in which the once-Great Office of State had been marginalized in favor of the Departments for Exiting the European Union and for International Trade in the wake of Brexit. But, with this move, the Foreign Office is back as a globally significant player in international affairs, and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has earned himself a place among the most consequential holders of the office since the Second World War. Here is why this is so important and significant. Giving 3 million people a potential path to British citizenship is a huge undertaking for the country, but the advantage will be ours. The eligible Hong Kongers, most of them born British before the 1997 handover of the city to China, are some of the most educated, entrepreneurial and productive people in the world. Any who come to the UK will be an asset and, the more who choose to come, the better the country will be for it. We should hope that as many of them as possible take us up on the invitation. If they do, we are looking at a boost to Britain’s economy the equivalent of a mini-London at a time when, let’s be honest, its economy will be struggling from both the fallout of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the trade and production readjustments that will be necessary in the wake of Brexit. Highly agile and entrepreneurial people will be exactly what the country needs to boost the post-COVID-19, post-Brexit economy. Almost half the country greeted the Brexit vote with dismay. They saw it as an anti-immigration, anti-trade, reactionary response from a country that we normally expect to lead in the international arena. But if Brexit Britain is going to be like this — robust in the face of authoritarian aggression, even from the most powerful countries in the world; dedicated to its moral obligations toward the people who helped build the country and their common histories; open to the liberal, democratic world; and, surprisingly to us, clever enough to seize opportunities like this to import talent from the most successful places in the world — then it seems Brexit Britain may well turn out to be a fine thing. Beijing has not been too pleased about this move by the British government. And this comes only a week after the UK government changed course and will likely now remove its reliance on Huawei for the development of its 5G infrastructure. It is safe to say that the UK has now moved squarely out of China’s sphere of influence, which, for anyone who has been paying attention to the way Beijing has carried itself on the world stage since Xi Jinping came to power, will be a relief. China under President Xi does not have friends and allies — it has clients that are expected to obey. That would have been a disastrous direction for the UK to go in, but we can now rest easy that the country is striking its own way in the world, still faithful to the old dictates of decency, humanity, democracy and freedom. We can now rest easy that the country is striking its own way in the world, still faithful to the old dictates of decency, humanity, democracy and freedom. Dr. Azeem Ibrahim Domestically, too, this move has been broadly welcomed. There are, of course, some dark corners of the electorate that will be displeased with any kind of “immigration,” even as they wax lyrical about the “glorious past” of the British Empire while failing to see the contradiction in their opposition to our commitment to the people of Hong Kong. But this move is all the more significant for having been made by the Conservative Party, which is normally portrayed to represent the anti-immigration argument in domestic politics, especially since Brexit. This was just unambiguously the right thing to do; the morally correct thing to do; the practically clever thing to do, and we Britons can be genuinely proud of what our country has done here, as we invite and welcome Hong Kongers with open arms. Dr. Azeem Ibrahim is a Research Professor at the Strategic Studies Institute US Army War College and a Director at the Center for Global Policy in Washington D.C. Twitter: @azeemibrahim Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News" point-of-view