THE DRAFT ORDER
CONFIDENTIAL
8. The draft Order, which is at Annex 1 to the draft White Paper attached,
implements the nationality provisions of the Agreement, and in particular those
referred to in the Schedule to the Hong Kong Act 1985 (copy attached for
convenience). Both the draft White Paper and Order have been agreed with the FCO,
and with Hong Kong officials, and with the Executive Council of Hong Kong (EXCO),
with the exception of one matter of principle which is considered at paragraph 18
below. The commentary provided in the draft White Paper is largely self-explanatory,
but Ministers will wish particularly to consider the following matters.
Connections with Hong Kong
9. The first part of the Order defines those persons who hold British Dependent
Territories citizenship (BDTC) by virtue of a connection with Hong Kong. This
proved to be a difficult task, since BDTC is the common citizenship shared by all
those connected with a Dependent Territory, without any distinction being made
between them. The Order therefore sets out in Article 2 a generalised formula
which is designed to encompass all the ways in which a person can be connected
with Hong Kong. Article 3 makes it clear, as Ministers wished, that the provisions
do not apply to those who would derive their status as a BDTC through a separate connection with another dependent territory. The formula, in Article 2, is supported by a list (Annex 2) which sets out in detail the 33 ways in which a person might
have become a BDTC by virtue of a connection with Hong Kong. We believe the list
is comprehensive (indeed some of the theoretical possibilities may apply to no-one
at all) but we cannot discount the possibility that there may somewhere be a person
whose essential connection is with Hong Kong, and who falls within Article 2 of
the Order, but who does not in fact appear on the list. For this reason we did
not think it prudent to reproduce the full list as part of the Order.
is to help those trying to find their way through the Order.
Registration as BN (0)s
Its purpose
10. In accordance with Ministers' agreement, the Order provides that BN(0) status
shall be acquired by registration (Article 4(2)).
They wanted the Order to
They argued that the term
11.
Hong Kong resisted this proposal for a long time.
refer simply to the acquisition of BN (0) passports.
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CONFIDENTIAL
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