The story of an ordinary Hong Kong immigrant

Not long ago, the author just finished a long talk with a friend from Hong Kong.

The cause of the incident was that this friend suddenly sent me a link, which said that the Taiwan government may extend the time limit for Hong Kong residents to apply for a permanent residence (identity card) after staying in Taiwan, from the shortest one year in the past to the shortest possible four years in the future. In response to media inquiries, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council responded: “Due to the rapid changes in the situation in Hong Kong and Macau in recent years, various circles have repeatedly proposed to review the residence and settlement system for Hong Kong and Macau residents. In response to relevant opinions, the government is still making overall assessments due to the wide range of aspects involved. On the premise of safeguarding national security, weighing humanitarian considerations, and carefully considering the overall national resources, and fully consulting and communicating with all walks of life, and building the greatest consensus in society, we can promote it.” Although it seems that it is a non-committal official phrase used by the Taiwan government , but anyone who has some knowledge of Taiwan's political circles should understand that if they don't explicitly deny it, then it's probably true. It's just that they may still be considering a specific time frame for the rollout.

The story of this friend is actually quite ordinary. He is a middle-class man in Hong Kong and spent most of his life in Hong Kong. If there is no accident, he and his family will be buried in Hong Kong as a matter of course, the place he has dedicated everything to. All the turning points came in 2019, when the anti-extradition incident in Hong Kong shocked the world. This friend himself is not interested in politics, and he once found it troublesome to vote. He has lived in Hong Kong for many years and only voted once for the district council election. It was because the candidate personally asked him to do so.

However, after the anti-extradition in 2019, the CCP directly tore up the clearly stated principle in the Basic Law that "Hong Kong shall enact the national security law on its own", and came up with an ambiguous national security law on its own, which made this friend fearful for the first time. It turns out that it is false that it has not changed for fifty years. It turns out that freedom has been lost in this way. Although this friend is not keen on suffrage, he is very sensitive to freedom. When teasing "bastards" might be illegal in the future, he finds it completely unacceptable. He said, "If you don't have freedom, it's no different from salted fish." So he made up his mind to immigrate.

Where should I go? He consulted several consulting companies one after another. Regarding the situation of this friend, the consultant proposed several possible situations, including the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Taiwan and so on. When the consultant talked about the advantages of Taiwan, in addition to the well-known information of the same language, the same race, and similar lifestyles, investment immigration requires relatively less capital and requires a minimum residence time of one year to apply for an ID card. It is the closest to Hong Kong. , very attractive conditions such as being able to return to Hong Kong soon if there is any trouble. In the end, the consultant also pretended to be mysterious and said that Taiwan's current president and ruling party are very friendly to Hong Kong people and have a lot of special care, which is not available in other countries.

After hearing the consultant's suggestion, my friend was dubious because he didn't know much about Taiwan. To be on the safe side, he did a lot of research himself, and was pleasantly surprised to find that what the consultant said was true. He found a large number of videos and news reports on the Internet, and saw that President Tsai Ing-wen and many key figures in the Democratic Progressive Party impassionedly promised to stand with Hong Kong and try their best to help Hong Kong people on many occasions. After reading these, my friend was touched by the speeches of politicians for the first time. He was angry. Why do 777 and senior officials of the Hong Kong class only listen to Beijing and never consider Hong Kong people. On the contrary, are Taiwanese politicians across the sea caring for Hong Kong people? Since then, he has made up his mind to immigrate to Taiwan.

Next, like many others, he sold his Hong Kong properties, cashed in several million Hong Kong papers, and successfully landed in Taiwan as an investment immigrant. Everything started off beautifully, and Taiwan seemed to be even more beautiful than he imagined. The people here are very polite, of high quality, with a lot of food, and the most important thing is freedom. In this regard, he began to regret the politically indifferent self before, and gradually became interested in political activities. I still remember that at that time he posted a post on a social networking site, to the effect that "I used to ignore politics, but politics has not let me go. Since then From now on, I want to be a qualified citizen, and when I get my ID card soon, I will actively vote and continue to support #热台妹#."

Although there are occasional news reports that Hong Kong siblings are being blocked in seeking asylum in Taiwan, his group all claim that it is a cognitive war between the CCP and the Kuomintang and People’s Party, who are common passers-by in Taichung. The Tsai government is doing it silently, but In order to prevent the CCP from sabotaging, there is no publicity.

Unexpectedly, the turning point would come soon. He soon lived for one year and formally applied for settlement, but the application was eventually rejected. The reason is that one of the shareholders of the company he worked for seems to have served as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, so he was determined to be related to the Chinese Communist Party, and his application for settlement was not approved for the time being. At the same time, people around him who have similar situations have begun to question the Cai government's "fraud to build raw pork." Although his previous determination began to waver, he still managed to convince himself that it was understandable for the sake of blocking the Communist Party and national security.

Unexpectedly, the house leak happened to be raining overnight. Not long after, the DPP government planned to prohibit Hong Kong people in Taiwan from participating in political activities or even accepting interviews. Although the relevant regulations have not yet been officially implemented amidst doubts, the relevant actions have shaken his faith violently. He even made a self-deprecating post. I have participated in campaigns for DPP candidates many times before. Do you want me to be deported?

Finally, the straw that broke the camel's back came. This is what was mentioned at the beginning of this article, the residence period may change from one year to four years. His faith finally collapsed completely. He told me, "There is no refugee law in Taiwan now. It is not easy for Hong Kong people to come here if they have no money. Even if we have a little family like us and barely come here through investment, we are not very good at doing business. Guaranteed to do it for a long time. We have to work for four years to be eligible to apply, that is, we have to lose money and then get out of Taiwan, isn't it best?" "I understand the consideration of national security, but now the CCP has only started brainwashing since childhood. We It has not been washed. Why not set a number of years? To those of us who have worked so hard to escape and yearn for freedom."

Prior to this, I had been ridiculing the DPP on social media. He had always been dissatisfied with me. Although he hadn’t cut his seat yet, he had hinted many times that I might have been recognized by the CCP for fighting. This time he finally found out that he was wrong. It turned out that the DPP really said one thing and did another. The examples I gave him before included the ECFA trojan horse massacre before the election, sugar-coated cannonballs, and a request to the CCP not to suspend ECFA after the election. While resisting China’s protection of Taiwan, his economic dependence on the CCP hit new highs repeatedly, far surpassing the “period of selling Taiwan”. After careful investigation, he found that it was true, and regretted everything, and found that he had actually fallen into a filter bubble. Just came to talk to me. Although I laughed at him, you wouldn't be like this even if you watched Mr. Huang Yumin's programs more, but I couldn't be happy, and I could only sigh infinitely in my heart. My friend is already trapped in Taiwan. If I leave Taiwan like this, I don’t know how much I will lose in the previous investment. Where can I go again? Can I really get an ID card if I stay in Taiwan? How long it will take, no one knows.

Finally, we also talked about the current situation of Hong Kong people who immigrated to the UK. It is said that many people are also very hard. Quite a number of Hong Kong people do not speak English well enough, or do not have a local degree. It is difficult to find a job. Many people have switched to driving, building land, and working in the catering industry. Life is difficult. He said, "We just want to be free, why is it so difficult?"

Yes, in this world, freedom turns out to be a luxury.