7 February 1992
Lord Geddes
House of Lords
LONDON
SW1
HKD 340/1
18 FEB 1992
ISTRY
Yon Takar
126
(8)
P://
Pichette
Ps/ Card Gaillness
Арил
7/
I undertook to write to you about the points you
raised during Lord Wyatt's UQ on 29 January concerning
the Chinese attitude to British National (Overseas)
(BN (0)s) and why the Basic Law made no reference to
either BDTCs or BN (0)s and their passports
(official report columns 1398 and 1410).
First if I may clarify one point in your question;
it is not so much a matter of whether holders of the
BN (0) passports will be "similarly" recognised by the People's Republic but, rather, that Jb 234 implicitly
refers to holders of BN (O) passports. As you know, BN (0) status was created by the Hong Kong (British Nationality)
Order 1986. When the Joint Declaration was signed in
1984 that status was as yet unnamed, and hence the
United Kingdom Memorandum (JD 226) simply referred to "an appropriate status" to replace BDTC status and enable former BDTCs to continue to use British passports. It is
this unnamed status which later became British National
(Overseas) to which the Chinese Memorandum is referring when it provides in JD 234 that 'The People's Republic of China will, with effect from 1 July 1997, permit Chinese
Nationals in Hong Kong who were previously called
"British Dependant Territories Citizens" to use travel