Australia May Provide Special Visas If Hong Kong ‘Situation Were to Deteriorate’

Chinese Officials Sanctioned by US for Xinjiang Abuses Have History of Human Rights Crimes

Persecuting Uyghur Muslims in China’s far-western region of Xinjiang is but one of a slew of human rights abuses by the four Chinese officials who were recently sanctioned by the U.S. administration. The sanctions, imposed under the Global Magnitsky Act on July 9, barred four Chinese officials, as well as their immediate family, from entering the United States. The sanctions will also block U.S. properties that are under the individuals’ names and prohibit U.S. transactions with them, the U.S. treasury department said. In Xinjiang, home to roughly 11 million Uyghurs, at least 1 million Uyghurs and other ethnic Muslim minorities have been detained within internment camps and subject to torture and political indoctrination in an effort to coerce them into giving up their faith. But such persecution is not confined…

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has discussed the option of providing specialised humanitarian visas for Hong Kong residents if the situation worsens under the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) rule.

Speaking on July 13 in an interview with Ray Hadley on 2GB, Morrison said the federal government hoped things would not deteriorate in Hong Kong, saying he wanted to see “peace and stability” and “liberty for those people who live in Hong Kong.”

“But if the situation were to deteriorate, then the government is in a position to have people who are already here,” said Morrison.

Currently, the government’s Department of Home Affairs provides humanitarian visas to those who face substantial discrimination or human rights abuses or are subject to persecution in their home country.

Morrison also noted that the government has the option in dire circumstances, such as with the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, to convert a visa into permanent residency.

“So we have all of those options still available to us, and we haven’t taken the decision to move to that level at this point,” the prime minister explained.

The introduction of new draconian national security laws to Hong Kong by the CCP prompted Australia to extend an easier path to permanent residency for some Hong Kong passport holders.

But the government stopped short of using its powers to create a particular round of humanitarian visas for people fleeing persecution in the Chinese territory at the moment.

Instead, they focused on the estimated 10,000 students and skilled visa holders who were currently living in Australia.

The Acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services, and Multicultural Affairs Alan Tudge said on the ABC Insiders program on July 12 that the government’s reasoning behind this decision was that Australia currently has a humanitarian visa system in place.

“And if people, no matter where they are, are genuinely facing persecution, they can apply for one of those humanitarian visas,” said Tudge.

Tudge then went on to say that the Morrison government’s second reason was that they deliberately wanted to target “serious talent which is in Hong Kong, and businesses which have their regional headquarters in Hong Kong.”

“We know that many people will be looking for opportunities to relocate elsewhere in the world. And we want to grab some of that talent for Australia because they come here, they generate businesses, they create jobs, they create wealth for Australians. So that’s the objective of what we outlined this week,” Tudge said.

Australia has also suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong after criticising the Chinese communist regime for implement the national security law, saying it undermined the “One Country, Two Systems” agreement, and represented a fundamental change of rules.

“The circumstances have changed,” Morrison said.

“They are now materially different from what was understood with the basic law and those declarations that were made at the time,” he said.

Focus News: Australia May Provide Special Visas If Hong Kong ‘Situation Were to Deteriorate’

Chinese Regime ‘Lashing Out’ at the World: China Analyst Gordon Chang

“What we’re seeing right now is a China which is lashing out at everybody,” said China analyst Gordon Chang. In addition to its encroachments on Hong Kong and the first fatal border clash with India in 45 years, “you’ve got the boat bumping and other incidents in the South China Sea, East China Sea; the increased tempo of dangerous intercepts of the U.S. Navy in the global commons; the repeated threats to invade Taiwan; all of these hostile words, these disinformation campaigns directed against the United States and others,” Chang said. The Chinese communist regime has become increasingly belligerent globally, and it “believes it can do what it wants,” Chang said, in an interview with The Epoch Times for the “American Thought Leaders” program. “We have to teach China for…