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14.
Ideally, therefore, we would wish China to accept for the future what it has already accepted in a limited number of cases in the past, namely that those who hold full British citizen passports, whether or not they have taken up residence abroad, are all regarded as foreign nationals. It could be pointed out that Hong Kong already has a multi-national civil service. If further guarantees of the loyalty of civil servants were thought necessary after 1997, it would.no doubt be possible for civil servants to pledge their loyalty to the SAR, or even to the PRC, even though they were foreign nationals.
15.
It could be pointed out that there could be serious practical problems if China was not to adopt this attitude. What would be the implications for example for non-Hong Kong British citizens of Chinese race? If the Chinese did not recognise all holders of citizen passports as British, a situation could arise in which the PRC would have no means of distinguishing non-Hong Kong British citizens of Chinese race from some of the beneficiaries of the nationality package in Hong Kong. This could lead to a situation whereby any person of Chinese race carrying a British passport in Hong Kong or in China would be treated as Chinese until he or she could prove that he or she was either not a beneficiary of the right of abode package, or that he or she had been permitted to renounce Chinese nationality.
Conclusion
16.
We should seek to persuade the Chinese to maintain their past attitude towards all holders of British citizen passports, namely that they are British.
17.
Civil servants who obtained British citizen passports might take an oath of allegiance to the SAR, or even the PRC.
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