Scott Morrison opens arms to Hong Kong

In a move that enraged China, the PM said Beijing’s security laws represented a ‘fundamental change of circumstances’.

Scott Morrison has made a pitch for Hong Kong’s top talent and businesses. Picture: Getty Images

Scott Morrison has suspended Australia’s extradition treaty with Hong Kong and offered work rights with a path to citizenship to thousands of residents in the territory after Beijing’s security crackdown there.

In a move that enraged China, the Prime Minister warned that Beijing’s implementation of tough new national security laws in Hong Kong represented a “fundamental change of circumstances”.

He would no longer allow ­people to be extradited to Hong Kong to face charges. But the Chin­ese embassy in Canberra condemned the move as a “gross interference’’ in its internal affairs.

“China strongly deplores and opposes the groundless accusations and measures announced by the Australian government with regard to Hong Kong, which is a serious violation of international law and basic norms governing international relations, and a gross interference in China’s internal affairs­,” the embassy said.

Mr Morrison made a pitch for Hong Kong’s top talent and businesses, offering an immediate five-year visa extension to nearly 10,000 Hongkongers already in Australia, new incentives to attract skilled workers to the regions and “express pathways” to permanent residency.

Hong Kong students in Australia will be eligible for a five-year temporary graduate visa that ­enables them to stay and work after they complete their degrees.

The government expects a few thousand Hong Kong nationals will take up the visa changes and visa holders outside Australia will be allowed in when the nation’s hard international border reopens.

Under the current visa scheme, Hongkongers in Australia would be granted between 18 months and four years of work under a graduate or temporary skilled visa, and would then have to apply for another to find a path to citizenship.

The latest stoush over Hong Kong comes after months of worsening relations between Australia and China sparked by Mr Morrison’s pursuit of an independent international review into the origins of coronavirus.

China has since slapped high tariffs on Australian barley products, banned exports from four Australian abattoirs, and warned Chinese tourists and students to avoid visiting this country because of alleged “racist” attacks.

Mr Morrison said the new law, which bans criticism of mainland China, undermined the one country, two systems framework, the Basic Law upholding democratic self-rule in the territory and the high degree of autonomy granted to Hong Kong after the British handover in 1997.

“Our government, together with other governments around the world, have been very consistent in expressing our concerns about the imposition of the national­ security law on Hong Kong,” he said. “That national securit­y law constitutes a fundamental change of circumstances in respect to our extradition agreement with Hong Kong.”

The Chinese crackdown has sparked a chorus of international criticism. Britain has offered a residency pathway to up to three million Hongkongers with British overseas passports, after Beijing imposed the security law after a year of pro-democracy protests in the territory.

On Thursday, Mr Morrison held a virtual leaders meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in which they shared their “grave concern about the impos­ition of a national security law in Hong Kong” and reaffirmed their opposition to “any coercive or unilateral actions that could alter the status quo or increase tensions in the East and South China Seas”.

The announcement came after Foreign Minister Marise Payne spoke early on Thursday morning with her Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network counterparts Britain, the US, Canada and New Zealand, about the imposition of Beijing’s national security law on Hong Kong.

She tweeted that she had discussed “global security, including concerns that the NSL imposed on #HongKong undermines One Country Two Systems and & trust in international agreements.” “We will work together for human rights & freedoms,” she said.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, NZ Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne were all on the call.

But the Chinese embassy warned the Morrison government that its visa changes and push to entice Hong Kong businesses to relocate were like someone “lifting a rock only to hit its own feet.”

“As we have repeatedly stated that the Law on Safeguarding National­ Security in the HKSAR (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region) will strengthen Hong Kong’s legal framework, ensure social order, improve business environment­, contribute to Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity and stability and the steady implementation of (the) one country, two systems principle.

“We urge the Australian side to immediately stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs and China’s internal­ affairs under any pretext or in any way.”

Business groups backed the push to entice Hong Kong companies to relocate to Australia, with hopes entrepreneurs would leave the Asian city to help build the nation’s manufacturing sector.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott said Australia’s growth had been “built on Australia attracting new job-creating investment and the best-skilled people in the world”.

“This is a smart move that will help boost Australian jobs by attracting some of the most skilled and best-educated workers in the world and the new investment we’ll need as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said.

Beijing’s security crackdown means that crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism activities and collusion with a foreign country now attract penalties of up to life in prison, and have been used to silence pro-democracy activists in the autonomous Chinese territory. The vaguely defined law also applies to Hong Kong citizens who criticise China overseas.

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong blasted the Prime Minister’s moves as too minimal and said Hongkongers should be offered a safe haven in Australia, as Bob Hawke offered to Chinese citizens after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

“We know Mr Morrison is no Bob Hawke and he confirmed that again today. What he has deliv­ered falls far short of what he has promised, when he said he would offer safe haven to the people of Hong Kong,” Senator Wong said in Adelaide.

“It is not clear from the government’s announcement the extent to which these arrangements will be more broadly available to the people of Hong Kong. Family reunion­ is not clear, there are still many people who are ineligible for the pathways proposed and I would urge the government to clarify this urgently.”

Australian National University National Security College head Rory Medcalf told The Australian China’s response to Mr Morrison’s moves on Hong Kong would be limited.

“Australia was already in the diplomatic freezer with China. This will likely make things a bit colder, but relations were unlikely to improve if the Prime Minister made these decisions or not,” Professo­r Medcalf said.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute­ executive director Peter Jennings also warned that China had “overplayed its hand” with Australia.

“We’ll get more of the same. China will get more shrill. There will be the odd export ban or non-import tariff barriers,” he said. “They still need our iron ore, they still need to feed their population … they’ve overplayed their hand.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs­ and Trade’s updated travel advice says the security clampdown could see Australians break the law there without intending to.