Mark Pinkstone/Former Chief Information Officer of HK government
The grass is not greener on the other side of the fence as many emigrants have found out. It doesn’t matter which country they plan to settle; the story is the same for most: desperation and hardship.
There have been stories of successes as the Chinese have been known for their tendency to emigrate to every corner of the world. There are Chinese restaurants and market gardens everywhere and many have even been admitted into local legislatures. There are also Hongkongers in academia and various professions taking up key positions in local communities.
But there have also been stories of hardships.
Hong Kong’s population stood at 7.1 million in 2010. Today it is officially 7.4 million and would have been more if there was not a dip of 0.9 per cent in the 2019-20 period when Hong Kong experienced devastating riots and social unrest. Many fled to the US, Canada, Australia and the UK for various reasons including searching of a better life or escaping prosecution for criminal offences relating to the riots. Others left to seek a better life abroad or to follow their loved ones.
Immigration lawyers rose like mushrooms in a damp paddock ready to sap a lucrative market seeking a new home in a far away place. And foreign governments could see the potential of a highly regarded workforce to bolster their economies. It appeared to be an ideal formula of supply and demand. But that was not to be.
Many who fled to the UK in the 2019-21 period arrived at a time when unemployment had reached 4.7 per cent so jobs in the promised land were not available. In fact, many were shunned as noted in a survey that the National Health Service (NHS) was facing severe staff shortages while Hong Kong medical professionals were Uber drivers.
Hongkongers who fled to the UK faced many problems, the greatest being language, followed by financial difficulties due to lack of work or low paying jobs.
The British think tank, British Future and its companion Welcoming Committee for Hong Kongers (WC4HK), had carried out a survey among arrivals from Hong Kong and found life in the promised land was not a bed of roses for the newcomers. They found the costs of council tax, energy bills and public transportation unexpectedly high. The useless British National (Overseas)BN(O) passport holders faced financial challenges due to their visa status, including lack of credit history, the NHS surcharge and difficulties accessing their Hong Kong pension.
Most of the participants interviewed by the WC4HK had not achieved a degree to fit with their previous jobs in Hong Kong. It was more common for the new arrivals to be working in both a different sector, and at a lower skilled level. For example an editor is now working as a waitress at events, an insurance accounts manager in a shipping firm is working in a warehouse as a picker and packer, an accountant is now working as a chef and was previously in retail and hotel work, a journalist who searched unsuccessfully for clerical work, is now working as a chef, a primary school teacher is now working in a nursing home, a construction manager is now doing freelance translation work, a marketing manager is now unemployed after working part-time in a beverage shop, a manager in a toy manufacturing company is now working on data input, a civil servant is now working as a security guard in a prison, and a director’s secretary is now working in two cleaning jobs. They are all square pegs in a round hole.
In January 2021, the British, in an effort to entice more Hong Kong people to the UK, introduced special immigration visas available to 5.4 million residents in its former colony. It was a flop!
Some 144,500 Hongkongers took up the new visa offer during the two years after the scheme was introduced. The scheme allowed BN(O) passport holders and their dependents to live and work in the UK for up to five years with the goal towards permanent residency and citizenship.
Adults born after 1997 can also apply on their own if one of their parents is a BN(O) holder.
But the Brits are putting up a brave face. British politician Robert Jenrick said last year when he was Immigration Minister that the policy allowed Hongkongers to “enjoy all the freedoms that we enjoy here [UK].” Actually, they are the very same freedoms enjoyed in Hong Kong.
And, unashamedly, he added, “Many Hongkongers have said that living in Britain is like coming home. The UK is proud to have welcomed 144,500 people from Hong Kong since the launch of the new BN(O) visa launch.”
Obviously, Mr Jenrick has not read the report from the Welcoming Committee for Hongkongers on the gripes Hongkongers have about the UK. And a success rate of 2.27 percent of the 5.4 million eligible to take up the offer is hardly something to crow about.
Mark Pinkstone
** The blog article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not represent the position of our company. **
Mark Pinkstone/Former Chief Information Officer of HK government
The American dictatorship of President Donald Trump and his sidekick, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is nothing short of a litany of lies told to Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino to break off Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) ties with China.
Before taking over the presidency of the US, Trump told the press, “China is running the Panama Canal that was not given to China, that was given to Panama foolishly, but they violated the agreement, and we’re going to take it back, or something very powerful is going to happen,”
With that mindset, Trump sent China hawk Rubio off to Panama with the threat of taking back the canal unless the Chinese were kicked out.
The only problem with the plan is that China has never had any interest, let alone control over the Panama Canal.
A sole Hong Kong conglomerate, Hutchison Port Holdings, controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, has two ports at either end of the canal operated by its subsidiary Panama Ports Company. There are also three other ports along the canal operated by private companies, all of which are used for loading and unloading cargo and providing fuel for vessels vying the waterway. They have no control over which vessels can use the canal, nor do they collect tolls for its use. This is the responsibility of the Panama Canal Authority, whose administrator, deputy administrator, and 11-member board are selected by Panama’s government but operate independently.
Hutchison Port Holdings (PH) is the world’s largest port operator across Europe, the Americas, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. It operates in five of the seven busiest container ports in the world, handling 13 per cent of the world's container traffic. Revenue in 2023 amounted to US$4.2 billion.
HPH has routinely topped the list of port terminal operators ever since it expanded worldwide in 1991. It currently operates nearly 300 berths across 48 important ports around the world including the Port of Barcelona, Port of Buenos Aires, Port of Busan, the Thames Port of London, and the Port of Botany (Sydney)
During his visit to Panama, Rubio wrote in a post on X that "the United States cannot, and will not, allow the Chinese Communist Party to continue with its effective and growing control over the Panama Canal area."
Trump has complained that China exerts control over the canal and charges the U.S. ships six-figure premiums to cross Panama's isthmus. The canal was built over several decades by the U.S. and completed in 1914 but handed over to Panama during the Carter administration.
Immediately after Rubio’s fleeting visit to the central American country, President Mulino said Panama would not renew participation in China’s BRI and two Panamanian lawyers filed a complaint in the country’s Supreme Court to cancel the concession of Hutchison’s two ports on the canal. Mulino also ordered an audit into the company.
Mulino, after the talks with Rubio, dismissed any immediate threat of US retaliation and reiterated Panama’s ownership of the canal. He ruled out any negotiations with the US over the canal’s control. Chinese officials, on the other hand, have expressed that they have always respected Panama’s sovereignty and have no intention of infringing on it.
The BRI, launched by China in 2013, aims to build infrastructure and improve global trade. Panama was the first Latin American country to sign on to the initiative, and as part of the scheme, a two-party Chinese-led consortium is building a US$1.3 billion bridge over the waterway.
"The announcement by President Jose Raul Mulino that Panama will allow its participation in the CCP's Belt and Road Initiative to expire is a great step forward for US -Panama relations, a free Panama Canal, and another example of POTUS (President of the United States) leadership to protect our national security and deliver prosperity for the American people," Rubio posted on X after departing the country and hailing his visit as a “great success.”
Norman Castro, one of the lawyers in the case brought before the Supreme Court, told reporters the contract "violates what the constitution says in about 10 articles."
"After a detailed analysis of the contract... we decided that an action for unconstitutionality was the appropriate means" to challenge the concession," said Julio Macias, another lawyer behind the suit.
The complaint also accuses the Hong Kong subsidiary of not paying taxes and benefits due to a series of advantages that are allegedly against the law. So far, no evidence has been offered to back up the allegations, but it will be required for the courts. Time will tell.
There were also allegations of corruption which prompted Mulino to order an investigation into the company.
Such is the strength of the venom Rubio spews up to get his way. Hopefully, the Mulino investigations and court actions will reveal the truth: that Hutchison Ports is just a bona fide company, conducting its business in a respectful and peaceful way as it does with dozens of companies around the world.
The attack on Hutchison is nothing more but a show of sinophilia paranoia by the so-called most powerful man on Earth, Donald Trump, and lacky Marco Rubio. Together, they are stalking the world like a bull in a china shop, using bullying tactics to force the world leaders to their knees in a kowtow manner.
On his Truth Social network, Trump has also claimed – without proof – that Chinese soldiers have been deployed to the canal and that “Panama is, with great speed attempting to take down the 64 per cent of signs which are written in Chinese. “They are all over the Zone,” he said.
But the “Zone” – a former American enclave bordering the canal – hasn’t existed since 1979.
Prime US TV network CNN fact-checking Trumps usual blabberings said that if the scenario Trump describes sounds like the plot of a movie, well, it was. In the 2001 movie “The Tailor of Panama,” which starred Pierce Brosnan and Geoffrey Rush, the US invaded Panama after receiving bogus intelligence that China was trying to secretly buy the canal.
