8
British Overseas citizenship at birth; and any of their
grandchildren, if born stateless, will be entitled to
be registered as British Overseas citizens. Thus, the
people concerned will be entitled to BN (0) status but if for
any reason they do not become BN (0)s, they will nevertheless
have a recognised nationality status, and so will the
descendants of BN (O)s and British Overseas citizens until
well into the middle of the next century.
The Government recognise, of course, that nationality status
alone is not sufficient. It is equally important that those
now established in Hong Kong should continue to have
right of abode there. Clearly, right of abode in Hong
Kong after June 1997 cannot be secured by holding any form
of British nationality, since Hong Kong will no longer
be part of British territory. For this reason the
agreement made separate provisions to safeguard rights
of abode in Hong Kong. These are set out in Section XIV
of Annex I to the Joint Declaration. As far as the non-
ethnic Chinese community is concerned, they guarantee
the right of abode in Hong Kong after 1997 to all those
who have been ordinarily resident for seven years in
Hong Kong either before or after the establishment of the
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and who have taken
it as their place of permanent residence. The same guarantee
extends to their children born in Hong Kong; and also to
/anyone