Reinvention

U.K. Grants Five Passports a Minute to Hongkongers as China Tightens Grip

  • Surge of Hong Kong residents getting BNO passport in 2020
  • City faces exodus as China clamps down on financial hub
Photographer: Lam Yik/Bloomberg
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The U.K. is granting the most special travel documents to Hong Kong residents since the 1997 handover, bolstering predictions of a mass exodus as China tightens its grip over the former British colony.

Some 216,398 Hong Kong residents received British National (Overseas) passports during the first 10 months of the year, higher than any annual figure stretching back to 1997, according to data provided by the U.K.’s Passport Office under the Freedom of Information Act.