Hong Kongers are looking for greener pastures overseas as the territory’s freedoms and living standards slide, with those emigrating saying the huge political protests rocking the international finance hub are just the latest catalyst.
Edward, a Hong Kong information science student living in Taipei, is nearly at the end of his course, but has no plans to return to his birthplace.
The 23-year-old, who asked not to use his family name, said he was thinking about heading to Australia in the next few years.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
Huge protests sweeping Hong Kong sparked by a Beijing-backed plan to allow extraditions to the mainland have only reinforced his determination to emigrate — and pushed him to consider settling in Taiwan for good.
“The China extradition law has prompted me to speed up my immigration plans,” he said from his university campus.
Taiwan, a democratic nation just an hour’s flight from Hong Kong, is an easier place to settle, Edward said, offering a path to citizenship within about three years for students.
“In my college there are more and more Hong Kong students each year,” he added.
Obtaining precise data on how many Hong Kongers are emigrating is difficult, because the government does not keep those numbers.
Moreover, many of Hong Kong’s wealthier residents — including politicians and business leaders — already have dual passports, a legacy of the territory’s 1997 handover to China when scores snapped up British, Canadian, US and Australian passports.
However, more anecdotal evidence suggests there has been a steady drain of talent away from the territory in the past decade — a period that has seen public anger build over rising inequality, eye-watering property prices and fears Beijing is trying to undermine Hong Kong’s unique freedoms and culture.
John Hu (胡康), a Hong Kong migration consultant, said there were two distinct recent periods where emigration spiked: the lead up to the handover and after the failure of the 2014 “Umbrella movement” pro-democracy protests to win any concessions.
The extradition bill has prompted “a third wave.”
“The rate of inquiries rose nearly 50 percent” after the bill was announced in February, Hu said.
“When the people went onto the streets to protest, it rose even more,” he asid.
Top destinations remained English-speaking nations with large Chinese communities, such as Australia, Canada, the US and Britian, he said, but many were increasingly willing to consider other EU nations.
Most of his clients are middle-class or younger people, often concerned about the standard of medical care and high cost of living.
“And I think the political environment lately has accelerated the demand for emigration,” he added.
YouTube and Facebook now abound with videos explaining how to emigrate while a poll by a local university last year found a third of respondents — including nearly half of those who are college-educated — said they would emigrate if they got the chance.
Steven Lam, a 37-year-old who works for a logistic company, said he and his wife were already considering a move to Australia following the birth of their child to escape Hong Kong’s notoriously high-pressured school system.
The political situation has only hardened their resolve.
“China is tightening its grip on Hong Kong,” he said.
“I will miss Hong Kong so much,” he said. “But thinking for the next generation, I think it’s worthwhile,” he added.
Po Fung (蒲鋒), a Hong Kong film critic in his 50s, moved to Taiwan last year, and said he has no regrets.
He now runs a film-themed bookstore in Taipei, obtaining a residency permit through an immigration scheme that requires an NT$6 million (US$192,617) investment.
“I don’t like Hong Kong’s political environment because there is a continuous tightening in human rights and it’s making me very unhappy to live in that environment,” he said.
“There are also economic factors I can’t overlook,” he said, adding that Taiwan was a much cheaper place to spend his planned retirement years.
However, others say the protests have reinvigorated a desire to stay.
Cheung Hon-yuen, a 55-year-old electrician who was out protesting last week, said his father fled Communist China for safety in Hong Kong.
“I wanted to emigrate to another country, but now that I see the Hong Kong people are so united I want to stay,” he said. “I don’t want to give up until the end.”
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to
‘GRAY ZONE’ TACTICS: China continues to build up its military capacity while regularly deploying jets and warships around Taiwan, with the latest balloon spotted on Sunday The US is drawing up contingency plans for military deployments in Japan and the Philippines in case of a Taiwan emergency, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported. They would be incorporated in a first joint operation plan to be formulated in December, Kyodo reported late on Sunday, citing sources familiar with Japan-US relations. A US Marine Corps regiment that possesses High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — a light multiple rocket launcher — would be deployed along the Nansei Island chain stretching from Kyushu to Yonaguni near Taiwan, Kyodo said. According to US military guidelines for dispatching marines in small formations to several locations,
RSS