The British Embassy in Beijing has refuted criticism from China over a scheme allowing certain passport holders from Hong Kong to settle in the United Kingdom.

Embassy officials on Wednesday night issued a second clarification on “misleading claims” made about the visa scheme by the Chinese side, which had threatened to withdraw recognition of the British National (Overseas) passport.

Under the visa scheme, London will start accepting applications on Jan. 31 for BN(O) passport holders to move to the U.K. for five years and to obtain full citizenship after the sixth year.

Beijing previously alleged that the Sino-British Joint Declaration, signed in 1984, provided the U.K. with no right or entitlement to interfere in Hong Kong beyond the city’s handover to Chinese rule in 1997.

In response, the embassy said the U.K. fully accepted Chinese sovereignty of Hong Kong and did not support or encourage independence, but it defended the declaration as a legally binding international agreement.

The U.K. had the right under the declaration to hold China to the commitment of rights and freedoms, and to the maintenance of a high degree of autonomy and way of life, in Hong Kong, the embassy said.

Chinese foreign ministry spokespersons have accused London of breaching the declaration by implementing the BN(O) visa scheme and offering the right of abode in the U.K. to Hongkongers. China has also threatened to withdraw recognition of BN(O) passports.

Countering the argument, the embassy said it remained the case that a U.K. memorandum connected to the declaration was clear, as the BN(O) status did not confer the right of abode in the country. If Beijing withdrew recognition of BN(O) passports, it would be in direct contravention of the commitment by the Chinese government for holders to use the document for travel, it said.

The British side further said that, in response to a claim that the U.K. was manipulating the rights and status of BN(O) passport holders, the government had amended its own immigration rules to grant Hong Kong BN(O) visa holders limited leave to remain in the country, where they would still be subject to immigration controls and as such would not have the right of abode.

The limited leave to stay on provided these people with the right to work or study in the U.K., but otherwise the government had in no way altered, amended, enhanced or diminished the rights or status of BN(O) passport holders, the embassy said.

Under current restrictions, a BN(O) passport holder would not automatically get permanent residency in the U.K. or enjoy U.K. citizenship, the embassy said. The person would have no recourse to public funds or government benefits, and would not be allowed to pass on the travel document to family members including children, it said, noting that the scheme had remained closed to new applicants since 1997.

BN(O) holders would be subject to the same application processes for permanent residency that had always been applicable, and which were the same for Chinese citizens or any other foreigners, it added.

A former Hong Kong lawmaker said that the U.K. had made such clarifications before.

It was noteworthy that this time the statement was issued by the British embassy in Beijing ahead of the visa scheme’s launch and a meeting of the top Chinese legislature, which might discuss the issue, said Emily Lau, chair of the Democratic Party’s international affairs committee.

The article was meant to take initiative to display the British stance on the matter, which had not changed amid all the criticism, Lau said.

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