of former Hong Kong BDTCS, if born stateless, will be entitled to register
as British Overseas citizens. This is parallel to provisions in the
British Nationality Act 1981 for British Citizens and BDTCS.
4. There are now calls for non-ethnic Chinese BDTCs to be granted British citizenship, with its concomitant right of abode in the United Kingdom rather
than the status of BN(0) or British Overseas citizen; but under the Sino-British
agreement such people and their children will continue to have the right of abode in Hong Kong after 1997 and the Order makes sure that none of them will
be stateless. These arrangements safeguard the interests of BDTCs who are not of Chinese ethnicity and their dependants up to about the middle of the
next century by which time the link with Britain will be more than tenuous and many years will have passed during which someone of Indian descent living in
Hong Kong will have been able to apply for Chinese citizenship if he so wishes.
There is of course no question of any being compelled to become a Chinese
National and in the unlikely event of any British Nationals being forced to
leave Hong Kong and having nowhere to go we have made it clear that we would
expect the Government of the day to consider sympathetically whether to admit
them on a case by case basis in the light of the particular circumstances.
5. Hong Kong BDTCs of whatever ethnic origin do not have the right of abode in
the United Kingdom, and under the Hong Kong Act BN(0) status does not carry
with it the right of abode here. The Council of Hong Kong Indian Associations
and those lobbying for those of Indian extraction say that the latter have no
intention of coming to the United Kingdom and intend to remain in Hong Kong
but granting their claim would not only suggest that we had little faith
in the undertakings given by the Chinese Government and in the security of
the arrangements after 1997. It may well also lead to claims for similar treatment from the 34 million other Hong Kong BDTCS.
6. The Indian community say they do not want to come to Britain. They say that
what they want is the right of abode in Hong Kong, but that they will be dependent
for it on the goodwill of the Chinese Government who, if they do not become
Chinese Nationals will not have any real responsibility for them. As a result
they ask for British citizenship. But if we did give them British Citizenship
that would not give the right of abode in Hong Kong after 1997. It is not within the British Government's power to grant such a right. It is however,
guaranteed to them by the Joint Declaration.
/cont...