Australia–Hong Kong relations refers to bilateral relations between the

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

Special Administrative Region of China and the

Commonwealth of Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It has a total area of , making it the sixth-largest country in ...

. Both Hong Kong and Australia were former British colonies and thus maintain cultural and economic ties. Australia is represented in Hong Kong through its Consulate-General located Harbour Centre,

Wan Chai Wan Chai (Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: 灣仔) is located in the western part of Wan Chai District on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It is bounded by Canal Road, Hong Kong, Canal Road to the east, Arsenal St ...

while Hong Kong is represented thorough the

Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices (HKETOs) are the trade offices of Hong Kong outside the territory. There are 14 HKETOs outside Hong Kong and China, and seven in China (four offices and three liaison units). In addition to HKETOs, the ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. Australian policy towards Hong Kong is guided by its extensive economic interests in Hong Kong.

History pre-2000

July 1989 - Australia grants “safe haven” visas to over 27,000 Chinese students following the Tiananmen Square crackdown, allowing them to stay permanently.

History post-2000

* 2017 - Australia shelves its negotiated extradition treaty with China after it becomes clear that the Australian Senate will vote against it. * January 2019 - The Australian Foreign Minister announces the establishment of the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations. * January 2020 - Free trade and investment agreement detailed by the Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade comes into effect. * July 2020 - China warned of further actions against Australia, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian stating that any consequences would be Australia’s responsibility. * October 2020 - Australia suspends the bilateral extradition agreement with Hong Kong as a result of concerns over the NSL. * December 2023 - Hong Kong and Australia trade $17 billion worth of goods and services in 2023, with Australia exporting $2.9 billion worth of services and $9.8 billion worth of goods to Hong Kong. * December 2023 - With $146.6 billion in stock in 2023, Hong Kong ranks as Australia's fifth-largest source of total foreign investment (direct, portfolio, and other). * December 2023 - With $74.7 billion in stock in 2023, Hong Kong ranks as the tenth-largest investment destination in Australia overall.

Bilateral agreements

Articles 151, 153 and 155 of

Hong Kong Basic Law The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China is a national law of China that serves as the organic law for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). With nine chapters, 160 article ...

permit Hong Kong to conclude commercial and cultural agreements with foreign countries, while article 152 permits Hong Kong to join international organisations under the name "Hong Kong, China". Both Hong Kong and Australia are full members of

APEC Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC ) is an inter-governmental forum for 21 member economy , economies in the Pacific Rim that promotes free trade throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Following the success of Association of Southeast Asia ...

and

FATF The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), also known by its French name, Groupe d'action financière (GAFI), is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to develop policies to combat money laundering and to ma ...

, and are bilateral participants on air services agreement (since 1993), Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (since October 1993) superseded by the Australia - Hong Kong Investment Agreement (2019), Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement (since 1999), Surrender of Fugitive Offenders Agreement (since June 1997), Transfer of Sentenced Persons Agreement (since 2006). Following the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law, which Australia regards as being in breach of the

Sino-British Joint Declaration The Sino-British Joint Declaration was a treaty between the governments of the United Kingdom and People's Republic of China signed in 1984 setting the conditions in which Hong Kong was transferred to Chinese control and for the governance o ...

, on 7 July, the Australian government issued an official travel advisory warning travellers and Australian passport holders residing in Hong Kong, advising the latter group: “If you’re concerned about the new law, reconsider your need to remain in Hong Kong." On 9 July 2020, Australia suspended its extradition agreement with Hong Kong, which had been in place since 1993 and offered to extend visas by five years for Hong Kong residents currently in the country, and opening a pathway to permanent residency for up to 10,000 people working and studying in Australia.

Political relationships

Australia's policy toward Hong Kong is underpinned by its substantial commercial interests, and by the presence of a large Australian community living in Hong Kong. Article 82 of

permits Hong Kong to invite judges from other common law jurisdictions to sit on the Court of Final Appeal. The Hong Kong Government continues to hire and appoint Australians, with or without the

right of abode in Hong Kong Right of abode in Hong Kong entitles a person to live and work in the territory without any restrictions or conditions of stay. Someone who has that right is a Hong Kong permanent resident. Foreign nationals may acquire the right of abode after ...

, to senior posts in the Hong Kong Judiciary. Former Hong Kong Directors of Public Prosecutions,

Ian McWalters Ian Charles McWalters (; born 1951) is Chairman of the Market Misconduct Tribunal and the Securities and Futures Appeals Tribunal in Hong Kong. He is a retired judge and former prosecutor. Legal career McWalters graduated from the University ...

and

Kevin Zervos Kevin Paul Zervos (; born November 1953) is a Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal of Hong Kong. He previously served as Director of Public Prosecutions of the Department of Justice of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region from Ma ...

, were appointed as High Court judges in 2011 and 2013 respectively, and both were subsequently elevated to the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

in 2014 and 2018 respectively. Sir Anthony Mason,

Murray Gleeson Anthony Murray Gleeson (born 30 August 1938) is an Australian former judge who served as the 11th Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1998 to 2008. Gleeson was born in Wingham, New South Wales, and studied law at the University of Sydn ...

James Spigelman James Jacob Spigelman (born 1 January 1946) is a former Australian judge who served as Chief Justice of New South Wales from 1998 to 2011, and also as Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales from 1998 to 2012. He served on the Court of Final ...

William Gummow William Montague Charles Gummow (born 9 October 1942) is a former Justice of the High Court of Australia, the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy. He was appointed to the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong on 8 April 2013 as a non-p ...

and

Robert French Robert Shenton French (born 1947) is a former judge of the Federal Court of Australia and was Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia from 2008 to 2017. From 2017 to 2024, he was chancellor of the University of Western Australia, of whi ...

have been appointed to the Court of Final Appeal as Non-Permanent Judges from other common law jurisdictions. The Australian Consulate-General represents the Australian Government in Hong Kong. Some Australian states have trade or business offices in Hong Kong, including Queensland and Victoria. Hong Kong is not permitted under the Basic Law to have diplomatic relations with other countries, but maintains the

in Sydney, Australia.Australia-Hong Kong relationship
Australian Consulate-General Hong Kong, China

Trade and investment

Australia's commercial interests in Hong Kong are extensive and range from banking, accounting, legal, engineering, information technology services and retail and general trading. Around 550 Australian companies are based in Hong Kong, and a further 1,000 Australian companies have representative offices.

Cultural

Some 90,000 Australians are resident in Hong Kong. According to the 2016 Census, 86 886 people of Hong Kong origin live in Australia, with 280 943

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

speakers in Australia, the largest number after

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...

and

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

. The majority Hong Kong immigrants live in Sydney and Melbourne. Australia is one of the major English-speaking study destinations for students from Hong Kong due to monetary factors; while the Australian government is encouraging an enhanced two-way student mobility through the New Colombo Plan educational exchange.

Tourism

Both Australia and Hong Kong have offered "

Working Holiday A working holiday visa is a residence permit that allows travellers to undertake employment (and sometimes study) in the country issuing the visa to supplement their travel funds. For many young people, holding a working holiday visa enables the ...

Programs" without quota restriction for maximum of 12-months since September 2001. The programme allows students to holiday in Hong Kong or Australia and to take temporary employment as needed to cover the expenses of their visit. The programme aims to increase travel by young people between Australia and Hong Kong and to strengthen the links between the two regions.

In popular culture

British satirical comedy ''

The Day Today ''The Day Today'' is a British comedy television show that parodies television news and current affairs programmes, broadcast from 19 January to 23 February 1994 on BBC2. It was created by Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris and is an adap ...

'' featured news coverage of a fictional

trade agreement A trade agreement (also known as trade pact) is a wide-ranging taxes, tariff and trade treaty that often includes investment guarantees. It exists when two or more countries agree on terms that help them trade with each other. The most common tra ...

between Australia and Hong Kong. Host Chris Morris's impression of

Jeremy Paxman Jeremy Dickson Paxman (born 11 May 1950) is an English former broadcaster, journalist and author, born in Yorkshire. Born in Leeds, Paxman was educated at Malvern College and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he edited the undergraduate ...

's combative interview style swiftly led to the outbreak of war in Eastmanstown, on the "Australio-Hong Kong border".

References

; Citations ; Attributions * With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms and where otherwise noted, all material presented on this website is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence

External links

Australian Consulate-General Hong Kong
Official Site {{DEFAULTSORT:Australia-Hong Kong relations Australia–Hong Kong relations,

Bilateral relations of Hong Kong Hong Kong and the Commonwealth of Nations