The Chinese Government, in various statements since the announcement
of the nationality package, have denounced the scheme, and the Bill.
Their objections seem to be:
(a) That in their view it violates our commitment in the Joint
Declaration (they have said that they reserve the right to take appropirate measures on this issue).
(b) That it would give British citizenship to a large number of
civil servants whose allegiance to China may therefore be in
doubt.
(c) A further problem is that under their nationality law the
concept of dual nationality is not recognised. They are
unwilling to contemplate the prospect of thousands of Hong Kong people renouncing their Chinese citizenship.
(a) They are also reluctant to concede that Consular protection
could be given to recipients of British passports under the
package.
6. The main points that should be made to reassure the Chinese on
this are:-
(i)
the package is not aimed against China and will not
damage Chinese interests; indeed the reverse
(ii) purpose of the Bill is to give people confidence to remain in Hong Kong and thereby maintain stability and
-
prosperity as we are pledged to do by the Joint Declaration;
this is also in China's interests
(iii) all the indications are that the majority of people
leaving Hong Kong would remain if they had foreign passports.
Our scheme will help in this;
(iv) it has always been clear from the Joint Declaration that certain top posts in the future SAR of Hong Kong would be
FAYAOJ