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[HK1 AIG]
BACKGROUND
1.
Mr Adley, who is a regular questioner on Hong Kong, is presumably asking this question in order to have the
Government's position on the record before the debate on the
Hong Kong nationality order in Council on 16 January, in light of the Lobbying by the Council of Hong Kong Indian Associations, who claim that the Chinese are unlikely to agree to the granting of Chinese nationality to the ethnic minorities
in Hong Kong.
2.
We have agreed that non-Chinese British Dependent Territories citizens, and their children and grandchildren born
after 1997, should be able to acquire
form of British
nationality (BN (0) or BOC) if otherwise stateless. The third
generation born after 1997 could however become stateless.
3.
We raised this question with the Chinese side at the
Last meeting of the Joint Liaison Group in Peking (26-29 November 1985) and asked them to agree to state that they would
consider sympathetically applications from non-Chinese BDTCs
resident in Hong Kong after 1997. They refused to do this but
agreed that we could state that non-Chinese who met the legal
requirements might apply for Chinese nationality and that their
cases would be dealt with by the appropriate authorities. The
Communist press in Hong Kong have subsequently taken the unhelpful line that this is a British problem.
4.
We were hoping only to deploy the proposed
proposed answer to
Mr Adley in the debate on the Hong Kong Nationality Order in
Council. Given this direct question however
question however we believe we have
no alternative but to reveal our hand now.
5.
The Home Office have agreed the proposed draft reply.
露