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this region for so many years to apply for Chinese nationality. We would not expect the Chinese Government, any more than any other Government, to give a firm guarantee that they will grant Chinese nationality to anyone who applies for it. But we have discussed this with the Chinese Government in the Joint Liaison Group and they have confirmed that non-Chinese who meet the legal requirements under the Chinese nationality law may apply for Chinese nationality and that such cases would be dealt with by the appropriate authorities. We expect to have further exchanges about this with the Chinese Government in the future.
Your letter of 17 February also compared the situation in Hong Kong with what happened when the United Kingdom relinquished jurisdiction over other dependent territories on their independence. In such cases, people who did not become citizens of the newly independent country (and there were many who did not) retained their British nationality. Those who did not have close connections with the United Kingdom itself will generally have automatically become British Overseas citizens on 1 January 1983. To grant British citizenship, rather than British Overseas citizenship, to those Hong Kong BDTCs who will not automatically acquire Chinese nationality and who have no other form of nationality would not therefore be consistent with this general principle. And it could unfairly lead to doubts about the position of the many other British Overseas citizens in many parts of the world.
We have also been mindful that while people's present wish is to continue to live and work in Hong Kong, they might wish to have a form of citizenship which gave them an unquestioned right of abode elsewhere. We do not believe it would be desirable nor is it necessary to make such arrangements at the present time. It would raise uncertainty about the size of this country's future commitments and it would wrongly imply doubt about the commitment of both parties to the Sino-British Joint Declaration. This would not in our judgment be a sensible basis on which to continue the positive and constructive work over implementation of the Joint Declaration which needs to be carried out up to 1997 and beyond. But we have made it plain, and I wish to make it clear again, that if circumstances were to change and any British national came under pressure to leave Hong Kong in the future, we would expect the Government of the day to consider sympathetically whether to admit them to the United Kingdom on a case by case basis.
In sum, therefore, we have ensured that the agreement we have reached with the Chinese Government and which is reflected in the Nationality Order provides all Hong Kong British Dependent Territories citizens, whatever their ethnic origin, with both an assured citizenship status and a continued legal right to live in Hong Kong. We believe this is a fair and just way to proceed which properly meets the interests of all concerned.
I hope
I realise that this decision will come as a disappointment. nevertheless the Council will carefully consider the points which I have made here and which we will no doubt expand on during the Parliamentary debates. We greatly value the contribution which Council members have made to the life of Hong Kong and we look forward to it continuing in the years ahead.
Your menty Dorylar Huw.