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US ‘considering’ measures to let Hongkongers settle in the country in wake of national security law, Mike Pompeo says
- Donald Trump is ‘actively considering how we ought to treat those who seek asylum coming to us from Hong Kong, or to grant a visa programme’, Pompeo says
- But he says that the government also wanted to ‘encourage people to try to work from within to the extent that they can’
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The United States is “considering” measures to allow Hongkongers to settle in the US following Beijing’s imposition of its sweeping national security law over the city, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told lawmakers on Thursday.
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“We’re reviewing that, we’re considering it,” Pompeo said when asked whether the US should extend asylum or visa opportunities to people in Hong Kong, adding that he thought Britain had made a “good decision” by offering a path to UK citizenship.
US President Donald Trump was “actively considering how we ought to treat those who seek asylum coming to us from Hong Kong, or to grant a visa programme that surrounds that,” said Pompeo, appearing before senators at a State Department budget hearing.
But in a sign that the issue is not cut-and-dry for an administration that has sought to curtail immigration and has slashed refugee quotas, Pompeo said that the government also wanted to “encourage people to try to work from within to the extent that they can”.
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UK unveils details of citizenship offer for Hongkongers with BN(O) passport holders
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But the ability of those still in Hong Kong to effect political reform was cast into further doubt just hours before Pompeo’s appearance, when the Hong Kong government disqualified 12 pro-democracy hopefuls from running in the legislative council elections, citing the candidates’ past appeals to foreign governments for sanctions against China.
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