OTTAWA: The Canadian government said on Thursday (Nov 12) it would make it easier for Hong Kong youth to study and work in Canada in response to new security rules imposed by China on the former British colony, a move likely to heighten already strained relations with Beijing.
"Today's announcement is set against the backdrop of a number of developments which have been gravely concerning to Canada," Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino told Reuters in an interview, citing this week's move by China to disqualify elected legislators in Hong Kong.
Any Hong Kong resident who has graduated from university in the past three years can apply to work for up to three years in Canada, and will be offered a way to transition more easily to permanent residency, the minister said.
Canada will also accelerate the processes for "their spouses, their partners and their children to come and build the next chapter in their life", Mendicino said.
Hong Kong's autonomy was guaranteed under the "one country, two systems" agreement enshrined in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration. Britain on Thursday said China had broken this treaty when it disqualified elected legislators this week.
Violations of the China's security law, or of any laws that Canada does not itself have on its books, will be disregarded when it evaluates requests for asylum, permanent residency or other permits from Hong Kong and anywhere else, Mendicino said.
China's envoy to Canada, Cong Peiwu, warned Canada last month against granting asylum to pro-democracy protesters because he said they were "violent criminals" who threatened the "health and safety" of the 300,000 Canadian passport holders living in Hong Kong.
On Thursday, The Chinese embassy in Ottawa had no immediate comment. Study permit applications from Hong Kong are on the rise this year, the minister also said.
"Things are going to get worse, not better" in Hong Kong, Vancouver-based immigration lawyer Richard Kurland said, adding that Hong Kong parents should consider sending their children to study in Canada.
After China initially announced it would put new national security legislation in place for Hong Kong in July, Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suspended an extradition treaty with the city and banned the export of sensitive military items.
Canada's relations with China, the world's second biggest economy, soured after Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, a Chinese citizen, was arrested in Vancouver in late 2018 on a bank fraud warrant issued by US authorities.
Soon after, Beijing arrested two Canadian men it said were suspected of espionage, and Meng is now fighting extradition to the United States. China has also suspended most imports of canola. (
LONDON: Britain on Thursday (Nov 12) said China had broken its main bilateral treaty on Hong Kong by imposing new rules to disqualify elected legislators in the former British colony, cautioning that it would consider sanctions as part of its response.
The British flag was lowered over Hong Kong when the colony was handed back to China in 1997 after more than 150 years of British rule - imposed after Britain defeated China in the First Opium War.
Hong Kong's autonomy was guaranteed under the "one country, two systems" agreement enshrined in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration signed by then Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
"Beijing's imposition of new rules to disqualify elected legislators in Hong Kong constitutes a clear breach of the legally binding Sino-British Joint Declaration," Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said.
"China has once again broken its promises and undermined Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy."
Britain summoned China's ambassador, Liu Xiaoming, to express its deep concerns and Raab's deputy, Nigel Adams, told parliament that it was considering possible sanctions on individuals over China's actions.
"We will continue to consider designations under our Magnitsky-style sanctions regime," said Adams, Britain's minister for Asia, referring to sanctions similar to those imposed on those deemed responsible for human rights abuses under the US Magnitski Act. He was asked by lawmakers if Britain would sanction Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam.
Adams said it would not be helpful to speculate on names at this stage. China's embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The European Union called on Beijing to immediately reverse the new rules, which it said undermined Hong Kong's autonomy.
On Wednesday, the United States, which has already imposed sanctions on Lam and other Chinese officials over the crackdown, warned of further steps.
The US national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, said China had "flagrantly violated its international commitments" and Washington would "continue to identify and sanction those responsible for extinguishing Hong Kong's freedom".
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused the Chinese Communist Party of using "a twisted vision of patriotism ... to stifle freedom and the call for democracy".
"We will hold accountable the people responsible for these actions and policies," he said in a statement.
Canada said on Thursday it would make it easier for Hong Kong youth to study and work in Canada in response to new security rules.
MAKING A STAND
Hong Kong's pro-democracy opposition lawmakers said on Wednesday they would resign in protest against the dismissal of four of their colleagues from the city assembly after Beijing gave local authorities new powers to further curb dissent.
The Chinese parliament earlier adopted a resolution allowing the city's executive to expel lawmakers deemed to be advocating Hong Kong independence, colluding with foreign forces or threatening national security, without having to go through the courts.
Opposition members of the Hong Kong assembly say they have tried to make a stand against what many people in Hong Kong see as Beijing's whittling away of freedoms and institutional checks and balances, despite a promise of a high degree of autonomy.
China denies curbing rights and freedoms in the global financial hub, but authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing have moved swiftly to stifle dissent after anti-government protests flared in June last year and plunged the city into crisis.
Britain now considers China has broken the Joint Declaration three times, including with the national security legislation for Hong Kong introduced this year.
"The UK will stand up for the people of Hong Kong, and call out violations of their rights and freedoms," Raab said.
The national security law punishes what China broadly defines as subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.
Critics of the law fear it will crush freedoms, including freedom to protest and an independent judiciary. Supporters say it will bring stability after last year's sometimes violent anti-government and anti-China unrest.
WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday (Nov 11) spent 10 minutes in public honouring America's war veterans - a veneer of normalcy for a White House that's frozen by a defeated president mulling his options, mostly forgoing the mechanics of governing and blocking his inevitable successor.
Trump's appearance at the annual Veterans Day commemoration at Arlington National Cemetery was his first public outing for official business in more than a week.
He's spent the past few days in private tweeting angry, unsupported claims of voter fraud.
The president has made no comments in person since last Saturday, when Democrat Joe Biden clinched the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
All the while, his aides grow more certain that legal challenges won’t change the outcome of the election, according to seven campaign and White House officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the thinking of the president and others in the executive mansion.
President Donald Trump participates in a Veterans Day wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on Wednesday, Nov 11, 2020. (Photo: AP/Patrick Semansky)
Before setting off for the solemn commemoration at Arlington, Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday to slam "fake pollsters" and grouse that a Republican city commissioner who defended the vote tabulation in Philadelphia wasn't a true Republican.
He also sought to draw attention to a Pennsylvania poll worker who recanted allegations of voter fraud on Tuesday before reasserting his allegations on Wednesday.
Trump later posted a debunked video that had purported to show poll workers collecting ballots too late.
"You are looking at BALLOTS! Is this what our Country has come to?" Trump fumed.
Although his official schedule has been bare of public events, Trump has made several personnel moves - firing Defense Secretary Mark Esper and installing three staunch loyalists in top defence jobs.
His pick as acting defence secretary, Christopher Miller, was among the Pentagon brass that joined him at Arlington.
Some supporters pushed back against the notion that Trump is shirking his presidential duties.
"The president is out there as much as he’s ever been on Twitter, and the White House team are moving ahead with budget and staffing priorities," said Dan Eberhart, a prominent Republican donor and Trump backer.
He added: "The president is understandably focused on the ballot counting, but at some point soon he needs to turn his attention back to the lame duck session and putting a capstone on his first four years."
However, few senior staffers have been around the president in recent days, with many either in quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19 or in isolation after a confirmed exposure or simply not wanting to be near the Oval Office, according to White House staffers and campaign officials.
Staff working from the White House thinned out after chief of staff Mark Meadows confirmed last week that he had tested positive for the virus.
Some staffers still believe the election outcome can change with litigation and recounts, but there is a growing recognition among most that the election is lost and the building will be vacated by Jan 20 next year.
Trump's moods have vacillated over recent days.
At times, he has seethed with anger, fuming that he lost to a candidate he doesn’t respect and believing that the media - including what he views as typically friendly Fox News - worked against him. He has also expressed anger over alleged misdoings with mail-in ballots.
But aides say he has been calmer than his tweets suggest, showing greater understanding of his predicament and believing that he needs to keep fighting almost as performance, as a show to the more than 70 million people who voted for him that he is still battling
Lights shine from inside the White House at dusk on Wednesday, Nov 11, 2020. (Photo: AP/Patrick Semansky)
In recent days, some aides, including his daughter Ivanka, have started to talk to him about an endgame, questioning how much longer he wants to fight.
Outside the White House, one prominent former ally turned Trump critic warned that the president was doing potentially irreparable damage to the Republican Party.
"The real issue is the grievous harm he is causing to public trust in America’s constitutional system," former Trump national security adviser John Bolton wrote in a Washington Post op-ed on Wednesday. "Trump’s time is running out, even as his rhetoric continues escalating."
But no one in his inner circle - West Wing staff or Cabinet - is forcefully pushing him to stop.
Though he has been in the Oval Office late two nights this week, the president has done little in the way of governing and has instead been working the phones.
He has called friendly governors - in red states like Arizona, Texas and Florida - and influential confidants in the conservative media, like Sean Hannity, but he has not been as responsive to Republican lawmakers as before the election.
Always an obsessive cable news viewer, he has been watching even more TV than usual in recent weeks, often from his private dining room just off the Oval Office.
Trump's approach to two crucial Senate run-off elections in Georgia remains an open question: He has not yet signalled if he will campaign there, and aides have started to worry that the extended legal battle could sap support for the GOP candidates.
Trump has also begun talking about his own future upon leaving office.
He has mused about declaring he will run again in 2024, and aides believe that he will at least openly flirt with the idea to enhance his relevance and raise interest in whatever money-making efforts he pursues.
While he ponders his options, his involvement in the day-to-day governing of the nation has nearly stopped: According to his schedule, he has not attended an intelligence briefing in weeks, and the White House has done little of late to manage the pandemic that has surged to record highs in many states.
President-elect Joe Biden and Jill Biden attend a service at the Philadelphia Korean War Memorial at Penn's Landing on Veterans Day, Wednesday, Nov 11, 2020. (Photo: AP/Alex Brandon)
The president’s resistance to acknowledging the outcome of the race has stalled the transition process, and the head of the General Services Administration (GSA), a Trump appointee, has held off on certifying Biden as the winner of the election.
The certification - known as ascertainment - would free money for the transition and clear the way for Biden’s team to begin placing transition personnel at federal agencies.
White House spokesman Judd Deere said he was "not aware" of any communications between the White House and the GSA administrator on ascertainment.
Biden on Tuesday played down the importance of the certification for now and said his team continues to prepare to take the reins of the US government.
The president-elect also suggested he wasn't overly concerned that he is not yet receiving the president's daily briefing - a highly classified intelligence analysis.
Denis McDonough, who served as White House chief of staff during the Obama administration and helped oversee the 2017 transition of power, said that even as Trump has tried to stymie the transition, significant progress still has been made.
The Biden transition team has published an ethics plan and the Trump administration earlier established a White House Transition Coordinating Council as required by law.
WAHSHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday (Nov 11) warned of further sanctions against China, which it said "flagrantly violated" Hong Kong's autonomy after the disqualification of four pro-democracy lawmakers.
"Beijing's recent actions disqualifying pro-democracy legislators from Hong Kong's Legislative Council leave no doubt that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has flagrantly violated its international commitments," said Robert O'Brien, US national security adviser.
He added that the United States would continue "to identify and sanction those responsible for extinguishing Hong Kong's freedom".
On Monday, Washington imposed sanctions on four more officials in Hong Kong's governing and security establishment over their alleged role in crushing dissent.
Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the expulsion of four lawmakers constituted an assault on Hong Kong's freedoms as set out in the UK-China Joint Declaration.
"This campaign to harass, stifle and disqualify democratic opposition tarnishes China's international reputation and undermines Hong Kong's long-term stability," Raab said in a statement.
Germany, holder of the European Union's rotating presidency, also criticised China.
A foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday the decision to remove the opposition members was the latest step of a "deeply worrying" trend which was aimed at undermining pluralism and freedom of expression.
"The citizens of Hong Kong have the right to free and fair elections and to the freedoms and rights guaranteed in the Basic Law," the German Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Those rights have to be respected and Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy must be preserved, the spokesman said, adding that China had made an international commitment to do so.
The foreign ministry spokesman urged authorities to quickly set a new date for the postponed elections of the Asian financial hub's legislative council as quickly as possible.
BEIJING RESOLUTION
On Wednesday, the Chinese parliament adopted a resolution allowing the city's executive to expel lawmakers deemed to be advocating Hong Kong independence, colluding with foreign forces or threatening national security, without having to go through the courts.
Shortly after, the Hong Kong government expelled the four lawmakers.
Later that day, the remaining 15 members of the legislative council's pro-democracy camp said they would resign in protest at the ousting of their colleagues.
NEW YORK: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday (Nov 11) imposed a new round of restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus as the infection rate climbed and hospitalisations soared in the state that was the epicentre of the US outbreak in its early stages.
Cuomo ordered bars, restaurants and gyms in the state to shut down on-premises services at 10pm nightly, and capped the number of people who could attend private parties at 10.
"We’re seeing a national and global COVID surge, and New York is a ship on the COVID tide," the governor told reporters, adding that contact tracing identified late-night gatherings at bars, restaurants and gyms as key virus spreaders in the state.
The new measures, which take effect on Friday, came a day after California and several states across the Midwest tightened restrictions on residents to try to curb the rapid spread of the virus.
"This is our LAST chance to stop a second wave," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted on Wednesday, as he announced the city-wide seven-day average rate of coronavirus tests coming back positive had hit 2.52 per cent.
The city's public school system, the nation's largest, would be shut to in-person learning if that figure reaches 3 per cent.
People stand in line to be tested for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Staten Island, New York, on Nov 10, 2020. (Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid)
As COVID-19 infections, hospitalisations and deaths surge across the United States, more signs emerged that a second wave could engulf areas of the Northeast, which had managed to bring the pandemic under control after being battered last spring.
The United States as a whole reported more than 1,450 deaths on Tuesday, the highest single-day count since mid-August, according to a Reuters analysis.
US COVID-19 cases climbed for seven consecutive days to reach more than 136,000 as of late on Tuesday, while hospitalisations crossed 60,000 for the first time since the pandemic began, threatening to overwhelm systems in many parts of the country.
In New Jersey, one of the early US hotspots, a spike in cases in Newark - the state's largest city - prompted Mayor Ras Baraka to implement aggressive measures, including a mandatory curfew for certain areas.
The positivity rate in Newark hovered at 19 per cent, more than double the state's 7.74 per cent seven-day average, Baraka said in a statement on Tuesday. The World Health Organization has said anything over 5 per cent is concerning.
"Stricter measures are required in the city's hotspots in order to contain the virus and limit the spread," he said.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy on Monday announced restrictions similar to those in New York in response to a rise in COVID-19 cases in the state, and outbreaks among bartenders.
REFRIGERATED MORGUE TRUCKS
In Maryland, where the positivity rate stood at 5.6 per cent on Wednesday, officials warned about rising COVID-19 hospitalisations.
More than 800 people were being treated for COVID-19 at state hospitals as of Wednesday, according to Mike Ricci, the communications director of Governor Larry Hogan. That is Maryland's highest daily count since April.
A healthcare worker stands by as a man takes a test for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as the spread continues to rise, in Staten Island, New York, on Nov 10, 2020. (Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid)
A record number of people died of COVID-19 in several Midwest and western states on Tuesday, including in Alaska, Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
"We are definitely seeing a rise in cases and large number of cases across the state," Dr Chris Weaver, an emergency medicine physician and senior vice president of clinical effectiveness at Indiana University Health, told Reuters.
"We are in a good place now to manage all the patients that we have but, as volumes increase quickly, it's going to fill up everything," he added.
In Texas, officials in the county of El Paso have brought in 10 temporary refrigerated morgue trailers to contend with one of the worst COVID-19 spikes in the United States.
Officials in states hardest-hit by the virus pleaded with residents to stay home as much as possible and heed the advice of experts by wearing masks, washing their hands and social distancing.
"It's not safe to go out, it’s not safe to have others over, it's just not safe. And it might not be safe for a while yet," Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said, as he issued new mitigation measures. "So, please, cancel the happy hours, dinner parties, sleepovers and playdates at your home."
