HONG KONG BILL
NOTES ON CLAUSES
INTRODUCTION
CONFIDENTIAL
ник 040/12
S
2 1 JAN 1985
PA
71
REGISTRY
Action Taken
a
i. A Bill is required to implement the Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom and
the United Kingdom and the Government
the Government of the People's
China on Republic of
the question of Hong Kong
as Hong Kong (published White Paper, command 9352). The Joint Declaration was signed by the British and Chinese Prime Ministers on 19 December 1984 in Peking.
2.
Paragraph 8 of the Joint Declaration states that instruments of ratification will be exchanged before 30 June 1985. It is therefore
necessary
put the Hong Kong Bill through all its stages
rapidly as possible.
the
over
to
the ceded
as
3. Legislation is necessary in two respects to allow us to ratify agreement: first to provide for the termination of sovereignty
of parts
Hong Kong and the termination of jurisdiction over the whole territory as from 1 July 1997, and second to accord diplomatic privileges and immunities to the Chinese members of the Joint Liaison Group who will attend meetings of the
Group in London. Ministers have decided that two other associated subjects should be included in the Bill: an enabling clause to allow a subsequent Order or Orders in Council in order to implement the UK
Memorandum on
on nationality associated with the agreement and to make other necessary provisions relating to nationality, and a further
enabling clause to allow technical amendments to be made to UK legislation. In the event of parliamentary opposition which threatened to delay the Bill's passage, and hence ratification,
these two aspects of the legislation could in the final resort be dropped and dealt with in a separate Bill.
of Hong Kong.
4. Although the Bill is fairly narrow in scope MPs may well use the
debate the whole future
Following
the endorsement of the agreement by the people of Hong Kong, the
opportunity
to
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