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Mr Jones NTD
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NATIONALITY BILL:
1.
SECRET
Izle (92A)
HKCK 34011
RECEIVLO 2* BOSURY NO. 51
2 7 FEB 1981
BESK OPACER INDEX
PA
ARRANGEMENTS FOR DEPENDENCIES
مند
"
REGISTRY Achun Taken
$30.3. Pao 3013
Thank you for your minutes of 20 and 23 February in which you ask if HKGD could review its position on this issue.
2. I have a lot of sympathy for those who see advantage in having individual territory citizenships instead of a general CBDT provision. However, I see no prospect of changing our position on this question, which has already been gone into very throughly, as far as Hong Kong is concerned. The fear of being isolated from, and cut adrift by, the UK is a constant one in Hong Kong, and the creation of a separate citizenship for the territory would heighten this to an uncomfortable degree. However, I am much more concerned about the reactions from Peking. The Chinese would not understand what we
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were trying to achieve. We may not be too far from a point in time where we shall have to start discussing directly with the Chinese the long-term future of Hong Kong. As you will appreciate, this is a vastly complicated subject containing many imponderables. is much suspicion in Hong Kong, and I expect in Peking, as long-term objectives might be. Any move now on the citizenship front would be misinterpreted as a first step on the wider issue of Hong Kong's future and would have an adverse effect not only on our relations with the territory but also with China.
3.
For all these reasons, I am afraid we must continue to oppose separate citizenships for individual territories. However, I recognise that Ministers will need to be able to allude to these in some way in discussions in Committee and that a rather different public line may be required. The Governor is unhappy at Hong Kong being directly implicated, but it might be possible to use something on the following lines (i.e. watering down that contained in FCO telegram No 103):
in relations f
with certain ligand
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CME
'Separate citizenship for individual territories would be
inappropriate since some of them would see this
as an attempt to distance them from the mother country. Moreover, it could be a complicating factor in the relationship between certain territories and neighbouring independent states who have a close interest in these territories.'
We would need to clear this formula with Hong Kong and Peking.
4.
Turning to the draft paper attached to your minute of 20 February, I have the following comments:
Paragraph 3(f): The reference to 'half a million people' should be deleted; this arose from the rather emotional and exaggerated comments made by Sir S Y Chung during his meetings with Ministers in London recently. We have now had a much more conservative estimate from the Governor of 40,000, including dependents. intend to argue with the Home Office that in practice the figure would be much lower. I suggest that you should remove the phrase in brackets.
But we
5. It follows from what I have said in paragraph 2 above that I agree with the conclusion which you have drawn on separate citizen- ships for the dependencies.
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16.