CONFIDENTIAL
10.
Article 2(1) defines for the purposes of the Order those people
who are to be taken as having a connection with Hong Kong. It
encompasses all the Hong Kong BDTCS listed in Annex 2. Specifically, such people include all those who fall within
16 paragraphs 11 to below.
11.
Article 2(1)(a) concerns BDTCs born, naturalised or registered
in Hong Kong or found abandoned there as newborn infants or their
children. Anyone born in Hong Kong before 1983, or naturalised or
registered there before that date, became a BDTC on 1 January 1983
under the British Nationality Act 1981. Article 2(1)(a) read in
conjunction with Article 2(3) is so framed as to ensure that a BDTC
born in Hong Kong on or after 1 January 1983 will not lose his BDTC
status in 1997 if neither parent is at the time of the birth settled
in Hong Kong or a Hong Kong BDTC. For example, a child born in Hong
Kong on or after 1 January 1983 to parents who are Gibraltarians
and who are in Hong Kong temporarily will not lose his BDTC status
in 1997 just because of his birth in Hong Kong. (See also paragraph
18).
12.
Article 2(1)(b) concerns people who became BDTCs through
adoption by parents who are Hong Kong BDTCs. This provision accords
with the provision for acquisition of BDTC status by adoption under
the British Nationality Act 1981 whereby a child adopted in a
Dependent Territory becomes a BDTC if the adopter or, in the case of
joint adoption, one of the adopters is a BDTC. This article is
therefore so framed as to include all those people at least one of
whose adoptive parents is a British Dependent Territories citizen by
virtue of a connection with Hong Kong, irrespective of where the
adoption actually took place.
13. Article 2(1)(c) is concerned with people registered outside
Hong Kong. Registration may have taken place outside Hong Kong on
the basis of a connection with Hong Kong, since certain of the
registration provisions contained in the British Nationality Act
1948 did not contain any residential qualifications.