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tv   Britains New Hongkongers  BBC News  September 4, 2022 10:30am-11:01am BST

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the foreign secretary, liz truss, is widely expected to win. ukrainian families close to europe's largest nuclear power plant say they're living in fear — despite the arrival of un monitors. pope francis will today be blessing one of his predecessors popejohn paul the first who sought to defend the church's line on abortion and contraception, but also to reform the vatican. donald trump calls president biden an "enemy of the state" at his first rally since the fbi searched his florida resort for sensitive files. now on bbc news, britain's new hong—kongers. over 100,000 people from hong kong moved to the uk in the past year and more are arriving every day. probably one of the biggest migrations of our generation. they've got a one way ticket to a new life thousands of miles
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from everything they know. we can't go back to hong kong right now, but i think ten years or 20 years we can. if she is still in hong kong, then i think she'sjust going to be brainwashed. i think they deep down know that | i won't come back to hong kong. many are cash rich and are buying homes outright in towns across britain. they're bringing over on average, six, 700, maybe 800,000 into the uk economy. but are the tensions they were hoping to escape now in the uk? this is my bloody face after being attacked by those chinese people. i'm elaine chong. over the past few months, i've been following hong kongers who've moved to the uk and i've been finding out if their new life here is what they were hoping for. in 2019, violent clashes
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spread through hong kong. millions of hong kongers took to the streets to protest against china's growing control in the region. they felt their freedom of speech was being threatened with new risks of deportation to china and possible torture. the hong kong government denied this and condemned what they described as riots, saying they endangered public safety. the protests were eventually quashed. the chinese government then brought in a national security law, which they said was needed to protect the city. the law gave china powers to punish protesters, control the education system, social media and the press. many hong kongers felt this law impacted their civil liberties, making it impossible for them to stay. but for some, there was a new way out. we will put in place new arrangements to allow those in hong kong who hold british national overseas passports to come to the uk. we will never abandon our commitment to the freedom of hong kong and its people. in january last year, the uk government introduced a route that let millions of hong kongers
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move to britain. those who were born before the 1997 handover of hong kong to china and their families can apply to stay in the uk for five years. after that, they can apply to stay permanently. so far, more than 140,000 people have applied to leave their home behind and come to the uk. one of those families is the mos — yohan, eddie and daughter hayley. one of those families is the mos, yohan, eddie and daughter hayley. they gave up their life in hong kong and moved to the uk, settling in crewe, north west of england. today they're enjoying a classic british pastime — a trip to the seaside in blackpool. how are you enjoying life in the uk? brilliant. most of the british people are polite and laidback. i the move hasn't been simple for the family. they didn't know anyone in the area before moving, and eddie has been taking classes to improve his english. it's not easy at first
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because we had to leave our parents. we have to leave our friends and job. why did you move to the uk? of course, for a better life. because in hong kong nowadays everything is so... like insane in hong kong. we don't expect to be rich or something. we just want a simple life. hopefully haley can be grown up happily. the mo family's move to the north of england seems like a popular route for hong kongers. the mass migration has resulted in many families settling in places like crewe, stoke and here in warrington. hello, there.
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one of our clients who's bought a house here and they've bought another two houses to rent out. matthew set up his property company to meet the demands of this new flurry of migrants. we've got several clients, so he's already researched houses, probably about five or six, and they sell to around 350,000. a lot of properties on this new build estate in warrington have been bought by people from hong kong. those be the most can be like even sometimes going up to 30 or £400,000 above. we do see that they're bringing over on average six, 700, maybe 800,000 on average. all of matthew's staff speak cantonese and solely cater to hong kong clients looking to buy in the uk. our company didn't really exist before hong kong people started coming to the uk. how many clients have we been in touch with? you're talking maybe 20 or 30 new clients every day. if they've got kids, the first thing they think about is the education. so they want to come to a place that's got good school. good morning, everyone. my name is yowin.
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the uk's education system was a big draw for the mo family. hayley has started going to the local primary school in crewe. so have you guys heard of chinese new year before? so what it is about? it's about like why you celebrate. because, like, dragons. yowin�*s been invited to teach the class about some chinese new year traditions. so let's say together. 0h, very, very nice. brilliant. thanks very much. hayley is not the only hong konger to join the class recently. hannah has alsojoined and the pair have quickly become good friends. so we're going to some spread some luck today. everyone get... hayley�*s really settled into school life. we've currently got eight children that havejoined us from hong kong. i mean, hannah and hayley, they've gone into the same class. they are also teaching our children cantonese. and so it's worked really well.
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what do you think of the school? great. where did you play in when you were in the hong kong school? we just sit in class, _ sometimes do our homework. do you miss your school back in hong kong? yes, because my friend - is in the hong kong school. imiss them. and you miss your friends? would you go back to hong kong, though? i want to see my grandma. do you want to see your grandmother? yeah. the move can be tough at such a young age. but yowin feels it's in hayley�*s best interest. she enjoys a lot here, in hong kong, it was so stressful and she gets lots of different homeworks every day and things she can't finish until 7 pm every night. what do you hope for hayley in the future in the uk? i hope she can be happy all the time and she can learn what is right, what is wrong, because now
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if she's still in hong kong, then i think she's going to be brainwashed, you know, because it's going to be just like the education in china. she cannot get true news, whatever she see from the tv, maybe only fake news. the hong kong government has denied yowin�*s claim and says its education system consistently develops generations of talents. the growing interest in moving to the uk has fueled an explosion of hong kongers becoming youtubers documenting their lives in britain. videos rack up thousands of hits and range reviews of towns and shops. a guide to an english breakfast or showing off the local wildlife. wow. hello. look out there. heidi has become a full time youtuber since moving to the uk last year with her fiance, chris. today i've been invited along
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to film the couple's latest vlog about a british institution, the car boot sale. people in hong kong, they want to see videos like the real life in uk, like how to rent a house in uk and how to use the self—service checkout. we move to the uk because we don't see a future in hong kong. we want to have children in the future. we think that we will better raise our children and get a better education in uk. about 70% of those moving to the uk have a university degree or higher, and more than half worked as professionals or senior managers in hong kong. but they're starting from scratch in britain. for the first time, eddie and yowin are looking at whatjob options
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are available to them. this recruitment agency in stoke has taken on two cantonese speakers to tap in to the new labour force arriving in the area. we realised there was quite a big opportunity in terms of people coming overfrom hong kong, people looking forjobs. probably in the last few months we've had thousands and thousands of messages in hong kong. yowin worked in marketing and eddie was a reporter. but they're up for career change in the uk. what would you most want to do? what kind ofjob would you most be willing to do this year? receptionist something like that, actually. what about eddie? what did you want to do? delivery, yeah. we don't want to be stressed, so we just want to get some simple jobs to support the living, you know?
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so we have a ten hour shift at a cheese factory but mostly they will do some donkey workjust like putting like this and putting the cheese... coming from a marketing job and a journalism job, you've never had to lift heavy things before. what do you think about doing that now? the working duration is our main concern because 12 hours is really, really long. the couple have been given a lot to think about. but even with the challenging realities of uk life facing the family, it still seems like their experiences in hong kong are at the forefront of their minds. hayley, what did you think about leaving hong kong? at first i was a bit sad and when we're almost leaving, my dad cried because he didn't want to leave the house that we had in hong kong. the situation now in hong kong
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is even worse than when we left. one of the reason i keep this book is when hayley is growing up, i would show her this to let her understand what happened in hong kong. and it's one of the reasons, main reason why we are here now. you know, when 2 million people marching on the street and the government still ignore the voice, then you will find the city is hopeless. every time i talk about it, i cry. many hong kongers in the uk still want to take action over what's happening back in their home. protests like this one in london earlier this year have been taking place across the country. the government has been forcefully silencing us for a while, you know, even though we're living in a foreign city, but we still care about our city. we still care about freedom. people in hong kong are living under intimidation and it's getting more
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difficult to get facts and information with many newspaper and media closed down. this is clark. he's 19 and regularly speaks out about what's happening in hong kong. he was heavily involved in the protests in hong kong while he was still at school. in 2019, a photo of him being arrested by police was beamed around international news outlets. how old were you? 15. 16. you were 16? 16. yeah. why is that blood on your head? i was mostly hit by my head. clark left hong kong at christmas because he was worried about being arrested again. he's been granted political asylum in the uk and has been living in manchester. why did you come to the uk? because at that time i think it's very dangerous for me because ijoin lots of protests. your parents found out you went to the uk because the school emailed them to let them know.
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i sent an email to my school and the school tell my parents that i went to the uk. you didn't want to tell your parents — why? i hadn't told anything about my leave. why? i think it is quite dangerous for me to tell them that i'm leaving because they are like, they're pro—government, they're working in the government. how did they feel about that? the relationship is getting better, ithink. do you think you can go back to hong kong right now? right now, no. like clark, many of those who took part in the protests in hong kong have taken refuge in the uk. nathan law is one of the most high profile pro—democracy campaigners. he's now in political exile in britain, as he says he would face imprisonment if he returned home. i have always been a target of chinese propaganda and online attacks, so i've been receiving a lot of abuses, like threats.
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you're facing the largest authoritarian regime in the world. the reach could be stretching in every corner of the society, and they can mobilize the necessary resources to hurt you in many ways. since arriving to the uk, one of the most concerning threats nathan's had was on a chinese messaging service where users were offering a bounty of £10,000 for details of where he lives. i rarely talk to my neighbours. i rarely go to the pub in my street corners because you never know whether this information will be fallen into the wrong hands. but for me, i needed to like to be brave enough to overcome those fears. because if these fears consumed me and i stop working as someone who campaigned for hong kong's democracy, then that's a victory for china. in nottingham, heidi has also become a target of those supportive of china's government.
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one of her vlogs has been used in a propaganda video by a chinese news agency. heidi made a video about how hard it is to make a gp appointment, but this youtube channel lifted parts of it as evidence that hong kongers can't get medical treatment even if they have money. i was so shocked. i'm not happy with it, but i don't know what to do. does this put you off making more youtube videos? i will have concern about, do they monitor video? i don't talk about much about my family in videos because i really worry that my family will be monitored by those people. what kind of experiences have you been having with people who are pro chinese government? they say things like, you should get out of uk,
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you're just downgrading other hong kong people. the attacks are notjust online. violence has moved to the streets of the uk too. i've been put in touch with someone from hong kong who says he was attacked after a night out last autumn. the police arrested two people in connection with the incident, but the case has now been dropped. he wants to conceal his identity today in case what he says could affect his family. this is my bloody face after being attacked by those chinese people and it was in the hospital, i took this picture. so they they hit you here? and then all the blood on my face and my ribs was painful. he says he was insulted by a group of chinese men in a nightclub. later on his way home, he saw them again and shouted a pro hong kong slogan. those political slogans, they were very angry. they shouted, which means catch him, chase him. ten guys chased me. and then one of them pushed me
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onto the ground and the other guys kicked my head and my lips. i'm angry. how can i suffer this attack in united kingdom, which is a country known for democracy and rule of law? you're shouting out these political slogans. you were doing itjust to annoy them and provoke them. yes, because i thought i could run away. i didn't expect that. the reports of the attacks have mobilised some hong kongers to learn how to protect themselves. in liverpool, christie has started teaching martial art self—defense classes. her group has quickly grown with around a dozen members. i've observed that there's lots of incidents, so i believe that we need to just have some basic skills for hong kongers to protect themselves when they encounter this kind of situations. what kind of things are you teaching in this self—defense class? part of the session we'll build a fitness, just cardio base. a fitness just cardio base.
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and the second part mostly will be how they're going to block if someone attacks them or some counter attack, just some scenario of what they might encounter in daily lives. do you think that tensions between the hong kongers and pro—ccp mainlanders in the uk have it been getting worse? personally, i think yes, with what's been seen in incidents, they're notjust verbal, they go physically now. it's difficult to get a true sense of the scale and strength of these tensions. chinese communities in the uk are diverse and they have different feelings about the government in beijing. but when conflicts do arise between hong kongers and those that support the chinese government, the actions on both sides can be problematic. clark is still very politically active since moving to the uk. he's helped to organize protests against the actions of china. he posted a video of a clash between hong kongers and two chinese women standing outside their shop. why are all these guys from hong
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kong like approaching these women? those chinese taking pictures and video. some hongkongers feel so angry. what do you think about these hong kong guys intimidating these chinese women? i saw you posted this video, but then you also put the addresses of the women online. why did you post their addresses, though? some people might say that hong kongers are now using the same intimidation tactics that pro—government chinese people are now using.
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today, heidi and chris have travelled to london to mark a big moment for them since moving. this fits. the couple got engaged just before coming over and today they're getting ready for their pre—wedding photoshoot. it's very traditional culture for the asian people. they take it before the wedding so that they can have the photos to share with the families and friends on the wedding day. is this something that you would have done in hong kong? i think so. ijust want to do it for my parents. ijust want them to be happy. what's your wedding going to be like in the uk? a really simple wedding. but your family won't be here. they can't come here. yeah. maybe i will call them. facetime them to show them our wedding.
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heidi! wow. how do i look? amazing. i love it. the location for today's photo shoot couldn't be more british. it's the storm. this works really well. 0h. hello. heidi wants to share the special day with her mum in hong kong. i miss you so much.
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oh, i miss you, too. i do miss my family. yes, it's quite sad she can't be here, but at least she can facetime with me. do you want your family to eventually move over here with you? my family don't want to live in uk because they are like they feel comfortable living in hong kong. did you ever ask them, can you please come and...? no, because i know they won't. it's really sad, but they have their own choice. i didn't say things like this in front of them, but i think they deep down know that i won't come back to hong kong. back in warrington, another family is moving to the uk. matthew's arranged a virtual viewing
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of their potential new home. this three bed house is on the market for £220,000. what do you think of the house? well, it looks good. and it's a lot bigger than my apartment here. if you were to sell up your hong kong property, do you think you can buy more than one of these houses? yes. yeah. we have a property in hong kong. how much is that worth? well, at the moment, the price is about $700,000. how much is that? probably about £650,000. maybe you should buy three of these houses. yeah? and why do you want to move to warrington? i've never been warrington before, but i've got a few friends there. so housing in england was a big subject for the kids, for my kids to run around. do you think that warrington is just going to be a little hong kong
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in just a few years time? there's a lot. they do group together a lot more. they want to stick together. there is a surge coming towards warrington. in crewe, yowin has made progress with herjob hunt. she's got a trial at a corner shop. in hong kong i work for my company. i marketing plan which is more complicated. and here i don't need to think too much. i just stock it up, make it tidy, look tidy. and that's it. it's very different. as long as it can support my basic living here, i think like pay the bills, that's enough for me. in nottingham, heidi and chris are having a housewarming party with other hong kongers who've moved to the area. it's really good that i can have a community, just have my friends around.
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what does the next five years look like for you? maybe we will explore uk more and then we will have children like maybe three or four years later. are you happy in the uk then, do you think? yes, i'm really happy in the uk. do you think you're going to go back to hong kong? no. i want to live here my whole lifetime. hello. we are continuing to see some big differences in the weather across the uk through the rest of this weekend. we have still got low pressure centred to the west of us,
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and that is pushing around it these bands of cloud, which have been bringing some bursts of rain as well. it was quite a wet start this morning for much of the country. the rain is continuing to move northwards, moving to scotland and the rain will come to rest in the far north of the country. we are left with a zone of cloud stretching across central parts of england, east wales, that could bring us a few heavy showers. either side of that, some sunshine and a warmer day in northern ireland after that early rain. temperatures up to 20 celsius. a bit cooler in the far north of scotland but the highest temps will be in eastern england, up to 26 celsius. the zone of thicker cloud is going to bring some better wetter weather this evening across england and wales. another belt of rain sweeps in behind that, and everything again on those southerly winds gets pushed northwards, so cloud and rain for much of the country for a while overnight, and another warm night across southern parts of the uk, may be no lower than 16 or 17 celsius. into the start of the week, and we still have that big area of low pressure to the uk shaping our weather.
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there may be some stronger southerly winds around on monday. again, we start with some rain, and this time it is more likely to be in the far north of england, particularly in scotland, but again it will move off northwards and then we will get some sunshine and dry weather for many places. a few sharp showers, especially towards the far south—east, and then developing in the south—west of england, the west country, and into south wales. the southerly winds could be stronger particularly in the south—west, west wales and through the irish sea. drawing in some quite warm air is still. up to 20 celsius in the central belt of scotland, and 26 in east anglia and the south—east, away from those showers. low pressure will continue to dominate through the rest of the week. the centre of the low will drift east across the uk, so the wind may start to change direction and drop a bit, but it still remains very unsettled. some sunshine at times, but we are likely to have a lot of showers or longer spells of rain. the risk of some thunderstorms,
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particularly around the middle of the week and gradually temperatures will tend to drop away later on.
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this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the winner of the conservative leadership contest is to be announced tomorrow. the foreign secretary, liz truss, is widely expected to win. ukrainian families close to europe's largest nuclear power plant say they're living in fear, despite the arrival of un monitors. translation: it's scary at night when you hear the explosions. i we live high up on the eighth floor and we hear them coming from nikopol and other towns. pope francis has been blessing one of his predecessors, pope john paul i. donald trump calls president biden an "enemy of the state" at his first rally since the fbi searched his florida resort
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for sensitive files. the most vicious, hateful and divisive speech ever delivered

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