Boris Johnson denounced China’s imposition of a security law on Hong Kong as a “clear and serious” violation of its treaty with Britain, vowing to introduce a bespoke five-year visa for as many as 2.9 million Hong Kong citizens with British national (overseas) status. Speaking at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday he said the law introduced by the Chinese government constituted a clear and serious breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, signed in 1984 and aimed at smoothing the transition when the territory was handed back to China in 1997. The UK believes Beijing’s move violates Hong Kong’s autonomy and is in direct conflict with the territory’s Basic Law, its mini-constitution. The law also threatens the freedoms and rights protected by the joint declaration. The prime minister said: “We have made clear that if China continued down this path we would introduce a new route to those with British national (overseas) status to enter the UK granting them limited leave to remain with the ability to live and work in the UK and thereafter to apply for citizenship, and that is precisely what we will do now.” The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, promised the UK would honour its commitment to the people of Hong Kong. “We will grant BN(O)s five years’ limited leave to remain, with the right to work or study. After these five years, they will be able to apply for settled status. “After further 12 months with settled status, they will be able to apply for citizenship.
 This is a special, bespoke, set of arrangements developed for the unique circumstances we face,” Raab told MPs. 
He added: “All those with BN(O) status will be eligible, as will their family dependants who are usually resident in Hong Kong. The Home Office will put in place a simple, streamlined, application process. There will be no quota on numbers.” Describing the Chinese moves as “a grave and deeply disturbing step”, he warned that China would erode trust “in its willingness to keep its word and live up to its promises”. But Raab set out no specific plans to sanction China either collectively or by punishing individual officials through new legislation due to be introduced by the Foreign Office this month after considerable delay. He said the legislation would be published before the recess and it would include the first designations, but did not specify if Chinese officials would be included. Raab instead pointed to a resolution passed by the UN Human Rights Council supported by 27 other countries condemning China, saying it was a foretaste of the alliance he was seeking to build. He said he was hopeful that other countries in south-east Asia would also offer asylum to Hong Kong citizens wanting to leave. The shadow foreign secretary, Lisa Nandy, welcomed the citizenship offer but pressed Raab to urge UK businesses in Hong Kong such as Standard Chartered not to be complicit in the repression. She also urged the government to ensure that the BN(O) offer did not become available only to the wealthy. BN(O) status is only available to those born before 1997, omitting many younger protesters. Nandy also called for an inquiry into the role of the Chinese mobile phone technology firm Huawei in the UK’s 5G network and in nuclear power. She said she feared the Treasury still regarded Chinese investment as “a central plank of the UK recovery and the government approach remains deeply confused”. Raab said it was a sobering day for Hong Kong, and pointed to signs that protesters were being arrested or threatened with arrest under the new legislation. He then detailed his analysis of how the legislation breached both the Basic Law and the joint declaration. He pointed out: “The imposition of this legislation by the government in Beijing, rather than it being left to Hong Kong’s own institutions, was in direct conflict with article 23 of China’s own Basic Law for Hong Kong … which affirms that Hong Kong should bring forward national security legislation on its own.” The Basic Law, he said, “only allows Beijing to directly impose laws in a very limited number of cases, such as for the purposes of defence and foreign affairs, or in exceptional circumstances in which the National People’s Congress declares a state of war or a state of emergency”. “None of those exceptions apply here.
 Nor has the National People’s Congress sought to justify this law on any such basis.” He added that the legislation “contains a slew of measures that directly threaten the freedoms and rights protected by the joint declaration”, including the “potentially wide-ranging ability of the mainland authorities to take jurisdiction over certain cases, without any independent oversight, and to try those cases in the Chinese courts”. Raab said the measures “represent a flagrant assault on freedom of speech and freedom of assembly”. He highlighted extraterritorial clauses in the law that implied words spoken in the UK might be cause for arrest in Hong Kong. The laws gave Hong Kong’s chief executive, rather than the chief justice, the power to appoint judges to hear national security cases – “a move that clearly risks undermining the independence of Hong Kong’s judiciary”. He also condemned the establishment of a new Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong run by the mainland authorities. The office has wide-ranging powers directly intruding on the responsibility of the Hong Kong authorities to maintain public order. He said “China has broken its promise to the people of Hong Kong under its own laws. 
China has breached its international obligations to the United Kingdom under the joint declaration.
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 Taking a restrained tone that may frustrate some backbenchers, he stressed: “We want a positive relationship with China. We recognise its growth, its stature and the powerful role it can play.”
 He added: “It is precisely because we respect China as a leading member of the international community that we expect the Chinese government to meet its international obligations, and live up to its international responsibilities.” Hong Kong’s autonomy was guaranteed under the “one country, two systems” agreement enshrined in the 1984 joint declaration signed by the then Chinese premier, Zhao Ziyang, and British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. The Foreign Office said: “There are 349,881 holders of BN(O) passports and the government estimates there are around 2.9m BN(O)s currently in Hong Kong. The scheme is for eligible BN(O) status holders and their immediate family dependants.”