Get ready for weeks of seismic news. Britain’s BNO Hong Kong people, especially those holding property, are about to feel the aftershocks.
First, the government’s long-awaited consultation paper on permanent residency is dropping within days. Is the “5+1” timeline about to morph into “10+1”? We’ll soon know. But that’s just warm-up for November 26—when Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, unveils her budget. Rumor has it Reeves is targeting mid- to high-end homeowners—including plenty of BNO Hong Kong property buyers—with a so-called mansion tax. The catch? Even before Reeves makes it official, headlines alone have sent property prices sliding, walloping owners with double trouble: sinking home values and a looming tax hit.
Rachel Reeves targets upscale homes—BNO Hong Kong owners take a double hit.
Labour inherits a fiscal nightmare—and Rachel Reeves is the first to admit it. The new team moves in, only to find a £25 billion sinkhole left by the previous administration. Two crises are front and center. First, immigration and asylum numbers explode, with new arrivals flooding in and almost no one leaving. That gridlock sets the stage for this week’s permanent residency proposal. Second, a gaping public finance deficit. Reeves, the Chancellor, is under crushing pressure to wring every last pound from the system.
Rachel Reeves wasn’t afraid to play hardball. Her first instinct as Chancellor was to jack up income taxes across the board. But that plan crashed and burned—fury from the working public saw to that fast. Political suicide, plain and simple.
So, Reeves pivoted. Next on her list: Britain’s property-owning elite. Her showpiece? A proposed surcharge—the so-called “mansion tax.” The catch: it’s no longer just the rich in the firing line. If this tax sticks, the government expects a £600 million windfall.
Here’s how Reeves plans to fill the state’s empty coffers: a sweeping reassessment of 2.4 million pricey English homes, hitting London and the Southeast hardest. Of those, 300,000 homeowners—no small number—will fork out thousands more on top of their regular council tax, year after year.
New Tax, Old Wounds Getting Deeper
“Mansion Tax.” Sounds fancy, right? Not exactly. The scheme actually targets three council tax bands—F, G, and H. That’s right: middle-class F-band homes are squarely in the crosshairs. About 1.3 million households, many BNO Hong Kong people among them, get caught up.
London’s middle class braces as 300,000 homes face the tax axe.
Right now, these families are shelling out an average £3,293 in council tax every year. Now, they’ll have to cough up thousands more on top. The reaction was swift—Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride blasted the move as “a class war against Middle England”.
Most recent migrants from Hong Kong aren’t tycoons. They sold homes in Hong Kong, moved the proceeds, bought property in Britain, and work for decent money. Turns out, they’re exactly the kind of “middle class” this government wants to squeeze dry.
Prices Sink Before the Storm
No surprise: leaks alone have already dunked mid- and high-end home prices. Real estate agents say that in Central London, homes listed at £2 million and up have dropped by about 4%. Sellers panic, cutting prices; buyers run cold and wait. With the official tax announcement looming, expect prices to take another nasty tumble.
For Hong Kong people holding these properties, losses are already racking up. When the new tax kicks in, it’ll pile even more hurt on top. It’s a double hit: falling home values and rising charges. Only hope left? Maybe the permanent residency paper delivers some good news to numb out the pain.
What Say You?
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The most consequential national security trial yet to come is also the one with the most unanswered questions — and at the centre of it is a man who almost made it out.
Monday (Feb 23) was "Renri" (人日) — the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, meant to be a day of celebration for all people. But for the 12 defendants in the "35+ Subversion Case," there was nothing to celebrate. The Court of Appeal dismissed all their appeals against both conviction and sentencing in full. Unless they push it all the way to the Court of Final Appeal, this case is done. That brings two of the three major national security cases to a close — the other being the Jimmy Lai trial. What remains is the Joshua Wong case, expected to go to trial around mid-year. Like Lai's, it reaches into the highest levels of American politics, and it will almost certainly expose a trove of behind-the-scenes dealings that will shake Hong Kong to its core. The trial is close enough that the details don't need spelling out here. But one mystery absolutely does: Wong was once Washington's darling — so why did he never make it out, while his co-conspirator Nathan Law did? An investigative report by American journalists cracked open the story.
Wong's trial is the last big national security case standing — and the most explosive one yet. How did he never make it out?
Wong's role in the Occupy Central movement and the 2019 unrest needs no introduction. In June last year, while already serving a prison term at Stanley Prison on sedition charges, he was arrested again and charged under the Hong Kong National Security Law with conspiracy to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security. His second pre-trial review at the Magistrates' Court came on 21 November last year, with the next hearing set for 6 March; the full trial at the High Court is expected to begin around mid-year. This case carries weight every bit as significant as the Jimmy Lai trial — the spotlight it commands will be enormous.
The Charges Are Grave
The prosecution alleges that between July and November 2020, Wong — together with Nathan Law and others yet to be identified — conspired in Hong Kong to solicit foreign governments and institutions to impose sanctions against the Hong Kong SAR and the People's Republic of China, and to seriously obstruct the government in enacting and enforcing its laws and policies. The charges carry a potential sentence of life imprisonment. What exactly Wong and Law did, and which foreign officials were involved, the prosecution will lay out in full when the trial begins.
The public has long asked some uncomfortable questions. Did Joshua Wong ever consider fleeing before or after the National Security Law came into force at the end of June 2020? If so, why did it never happen? Did the US government try to help him get out? An investigative report by two American journalists answered part of the puzzle — and sources familiar with the matter, when contacted by Hong Kong media, broadly confirmed what it said.
Wong Begged Washington for Help
The night before the National Security Law took effect, Wong reached out through a senator's adviser to appeal directly to President Trump for help. At the same time, he sent an email to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, explicitly asking to be helped to "travel to the United States to seek political asylum, by whatever means necessary". That email tells you everything. Wong knew exactly how dangerous his situation had become — and he was betting his future on American goodwill.
Around the same time, Wong arranged to meet two officials from the US Consulate General in Hong Kong at St. John's Building, directly across the street from the consulate. He made clear he wanted to walk in and seek refuge. He was turned away on the spot. When Pompeo saw the email, he consulted with his staff and arrived at the same conclusion: letting Wong through the consulate doors was simply not an option — Washington feared Beijing would retaliate by forcing the US consulate in Hong Kong to close entirely.
State Department officials went further, exploring a covert plan to smuggle Wong out of Hong Kong by sea — routing him through Taiwan or the Philippines before eventually reaching the United States. That option was killed too, on the grounds that any such attempt would very likely be intercepted by Chinese authorities, triggering a diplomatic crisis. When the accounting was done, American interests won out — and Joshua Wong was coldly abandoned.
By that point, Nathan Law had already made it out. Seizing Pompeo's visit to London, Law met the Secretary of State privately and raised the question of rescuing Wong one more time — and was once again turned away without sympathy. In September 2020, Wong was arrested on sedition charges and imprisoned two months later. Any remaining window for escape had sealed shut.
Law Moved Fast — and Made It
Nathan Law is named as a co-conspirator in the charges against Wong — meaning that if arrested, they face the same jeopardy. But Law proved far more calculating than Wong. Shortly before the National Security Law took effect, he quietly slipped away, eventually confirming his presence in the United Kingdom on 13 July 2020. He even staged a moment of wistful sentiment, declaring: "With this parting, I do not yet know when I shall return... May glory come soon!" — words that, in the circumstances, could not have sounded more hollow.
Same charges, same case — but Law ran, and Wong didn't. One man made it out clean. The other is still paying the price.
Joshua Wong — sharp-witted all his life — took one step too many in trusting the Americans, and that delay cost him everything. The US government, in the name of "national interest," discarded him without hesitation. As his trial approaches, the reality is this: placing any further faith in American support would be the last illusion he can afford.
Lai Ting-yiu
