Australia considering safe haven offer to Hong Kong residents

Good, democracies need to provide refuge to people fleeing dictatorial oppression.

Not a fan of ScoMo but he has shown courage in taking on China!!!

Great to hear Australia! What a great country! Thank you Australia. Its always good news to hear countries helping other countries in times of difficulty. Way to go Australia!

Wow....mask on...knee on neck....can't breathe. Pardon the expression, but China sucks big time.

China has shown the world what it really is , sorry for the people of Hong Kong it was once a great city to visit and party with friendly locals, those days are now gone.

The exodus from Hong Kong started in the late 80s as the hand over from England came nearer and accelerated rapidly when the hand over took place, many who could left as they knew way back then what was coming.

Surprising in a way that the mainland took so long to stomp their boot on the place , everyone knew it was coming. Sad for those left behind.

Just one look at that picture says it all. Say “hello” to your new masters. Now Hong Kong is going to look like just another typical Chinese city. What shame and what a waste!

I'm old enough to remember when people fled there during the Cultural Revolution. Now it seems they will have to flee again.

Australia has a history of welcoming others. The China government have a history of killing, brutality treatment of its own. So welcome to an an open society, full internet, a country where there are no social points to loose. And best of all you can vote!

And then people are wondering why many of my posts are Anti-China.

@Bjorn Tomention

You are absolutely right!

I remember very well my nice times in Hongkong before the biggest Bully in the whole world took it over in 1997.

BigYenToday  04:12 pm JST

@mazzda

About 5.6 percent of population identify as themselves as Chinese or of Chinese origin. Hardly a large percentage.

But very visible, generally affluent and many families go back a long way, some all the way to the 1850s Gold Rush. Chinese-Australian politics used to be conservative and anti-Communist, and probably mostly still are, but recent arrivals may have muddied that up a bit.

That mirrors what has happened in the United States. I grew up with Chinese friends whose parents had fled the communists and came from Hong Kong or Taiwan. They had nothing good to say about the CCP regime. Fast foward several decades and while Chinese-Americans for the most part remain proud Americans, there are some who have found pride in what China has become. Those you find flooding the net with CCP propaganda.

All Beijing had to do was wait another 27 years, and they could do what they like. Beijing has no true friends now, only those who are in financial debt, or other corrupt regimes.

HKers don't like the lousy British weather.

On the contrary, I know a number who love i compared to HK - no insufferable heat for large parts of the year, no high humidity and no typhoon season.

Not everyone likes non-stop heat and sun.

@Pukey2

 the Brits don't care. 

The UK government is offering 3 million Hong Kong citizens the right to live and work in the UK. What planet to do you live on?

Every colony they've left, they've left disaster 

Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, and, well Australia, etc....yep, real disasters.

Bravo Australia !!! Let's unite against this brutal bully. I cannot believe my eyes, I expected humbleness and apology from mainland for the suffering they created out of Wuhan but instead we see this. It is really kingdom of evil already from 1949. Shame on you China !!!!

LOL，I'm sure China is more than happy to see those HKers get out of HK，and replace them with people from mainland

China buys around 50% of Australia’s coal. Australians buy truck loads of Chinese goods made with Australian coal. Neither can survive without the other.

PM Kevin Rudd started the sale of Australia to China and sussesive governments have continued the trend. Australia’s second language is Chinese and a large percentage of the population are Chinese. However, the human rights issues of Hong Kong cannot continue. Australia will survive without Chinese sales, but China will be a cold and dark place without Aussie coal.

@ Do the hustle

About 5.6 percent of population identify as themselves as Chinese or of Chinese origin. Hardly a large percentage.

Australia is helpful by her act. good for HK and the people who have different idea from China. happiness for everyone is the ideal results.

The Chinese Hong Kong population in Australia started growing in the 1980s, well in advance of the 1997 Handover.

Box Hill, in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, has increasingly become a mini Hong Kong.

Great vibe, great restaurants!

I think China will welcome such moves and would probably help in moving HK refugees to any country. The less resistance the better for them.

I don't see how this could work in Australia or the UK, which has offered to take up to 3 million. For a start, Australia has said it won't open its borders until next year. Second, what jobs will these new arrivals have? Australia has 7% unemployment due to the coronavirus and it will probably go up. Third, where will the new arrivals live? Australia's three largest cities are overpopulated and the government has been trying to encourage its immigrant new arrivals to settle in the countryside. But any educated citizens from Hong Kong will want to be in the big cities. Also, climate change and depopulation are decimating the Australian countryside. Furthermore, and sadly, there is an undercurrent of racism in Australian society. So, many new arrivals from Hong Kong will not be met with open arms. I have already read someone make a ridiculous comment such as "Great, it will more good Chinese restaurants."

As for Britain, with its unemployment, how is it going to resettle 3 million people, ensuring jobs and accommodation for them.

In my opinion, if given a choice, I think most Hong Kong citizens who want to leave, would prefer Taiwan.

Australia showing it is a good world citizen and a friend to the Chinese people. Hong Kong has some very smart and hard working business people and will no doubt bring business opportunities to Australia. A good move for all.

Hong Kongers (and people in Macau) need to decide soon. Stay, fight, and likely be overrun OR

leave, take your possessions, family, and build a life elsewhere in a freer society.

My ancestors have done that twice. My grandparents passed down stories of "the old country" where the family fled after a war in Europe when the leader invited them to build communities retain their culture, language, religion and have free land. The same happened when the US opened the midwest as the "old country" govt decided the culture and language and religion had to end. 75% of our family who stayed behind ended up in the Soviet Union. A cautionary tale?

This will confuse the Aussie rural red necks in Queensland who vote for a woman that entered Parliament on a "we are in danger of being swamped by Asians " platform.

These are also Sco Mo's people.

My prediction.....very little change in the immigration program......Govt. playing politics with this.

I'm reminded of Tony Abbot's wish to have Christians under siege from ISIS bought to Australia.....didn't happen.

Current PM had a pre politics employment history in advertising....and as a NSW Liberal back ground operator.

He's tricky !

Australia would be a better destination for the Hong Kong Chinese, than Britain. Bigger country, smaller pop and great market for food outlets.

HKers don't like the lousy British weather.

I'm old enough to remember last time many were fleeing after the Tiananmen 'incident'. One of the ideas floated by some Brits was to send HKers to an isolated island somewhere in the UK. To put it bluntly, the Brits don't care. Every colony they've left, they've left disaster - just look at the mess from the partition in India, and post-colonial Africa.

I thought Japan was assisting Hong Kong but its Australia. Sorry, my bad.

Japan? Where on earth did you get that idea? Taiwan has been of much more help.