Biden extends visa protection scheme for Hong Kong residents

The Biden administration today decided to extend a visa program that protects Hong Kong residents from being deported from the U.S., as Beijing continues to clamp down on “security risks” under the National Security Law (NSL).

“The news was expected, but the announcement should have come way sooner than 10 days from the expiry date,” a 26-year-old Hong Kong citizen living in the U.S., who is currently granted DED protections, told The China Project under the condition of anonymity. “I’m relieved I can continue to stay and work in the U.S. for two more years, but DED is not a long-term solution for Hong Kong residents living in the U.S., as it does not provide a pathway to permanent residency.”

Hong Kong residents will be given two more years to live and work in the U.S. under the extended deportation protections, known as Deferred Enforced Departure (DED). U.S. President Joe Biden first issued a memorandum on August 5, 2021, that deferred deportation of an estimated 3,860 Hong Kong residents for 18 months, citing “the significant erosion of those rights and freedoms” by the PRC in the city.

“With this action, we are demonstrating again President Biden’s strong support for the people of Hong Kong in the face of increasing repression by the PRC,” the National Security Council said in a statement today.

Other DEDs currently in force include residents from Liberia, who fled armed conflict from their home country, and from Venezuela, who faced “the worst humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere in recent memory” under the Maduro regime.

The extension was met by relief less than two anxiety-ridden weeks before the original expiration date on February 5, particularly among people who had participated in the massive, and sometimes violent, pro-democracy protests that began in 2019.

Some eligible Hongkongers chose not to stay

Under the Beijing-imposed NSL, many of them feared retribution from government authorities if they returned to the city. But an even greater number of Hongkongers who had not participated in the protests, but live and work in the U.S., were relieved after months of uncertainty over whether they would have to uproot their lives in the coming months.

But excluded from the protections are people who have voluntarily returned to Hong Kong or mainland China after DED was first issued, as well as those who have not continuously resided in the United States. People who are protected by DED may only leave the U.S. if they are granted a travel permit, which costs $575. Some Hong Kong residents who applied to leave at the beginning of the protection scheme in 2021 have still not heard back from the government.

Others have opted not to partake in DED over fears of never being able to return home or not being able to leave, choosing instead to leave the country and relocate elsewhere.

The deferred deportation comes as China puts more pressure on Hong Kong under the sweeping NSL, which Beijing claims has restored political stability to the city but has often been criticized by Western democracies as a powerful legal tool to stifle dissent.

Last month, China’s top court granted Hong Kong leader John Lee (李家超 Lǐ Jiāchāo) the power to bar foreign lawyers from national security trials, saying that the decision “will not undermine the HKSAR’s high degree of autonomy.”

The ruling was for the national security case involving Jimmy Lai (黎智英 Lí Zhìyīng), the Hong Kong media tycoon and founder of now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, which had been postponed to give time for the ruling by China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC).

The reaction in China

Both the Chinese and the Hong Kong governments hit back at “untruthful remarks and smears” made by U.S. Consul General Gregory May, who said yesterday that the new ruling under the NSL “could further undermine the independence of Hong Kong’s judiciary system by expanding the Hong Kong executive branch authority to make decisions affecting cases without judicial oversight.”

Hong Kong courts had previously been able to bring in overseas lawyers from other common law jurisdictions to work in the city, particularly for cases that required specific expertise. They must now obtain permission before admitting a foreign lawyer, or risk having the decision diverted to the city’s national security committee.

The NSL has led to the arrests of more than 160 people since June 2020, including organizing informal public opinion polls, as well as the closure of over 150 civil society organizations.

Human rights lawyers are fleeing the city en masse, Reuters reports, citing a “campaign of intimidation” by local authorities. The Hong Kong government has ramped up its SEO algorithms after several failed attempts to convince Google to stop listing a pro-democracy protest song as the top search result for the city’s national anthem.

Last week, John Lee announced plans to roll out a second draft of the National Security Law this year, in a bid to close the “loopholes” left under the current law. It will target “spying activities…especially new media, new technologies,” per CCP nationalist news agency the Global Times.