2 February 1993
C W Ross Esq British Embassy BONN
Dear
Came
RESTRICTED
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
HKD 340/6
London SWIA 2AH
RI
Telephone: 071-
03FEB 1993
IN
iart
19
file
HONG KONG POST-1997: NATIONALITY QUESTIONS
1. You have asked us for some material to use to help the German MFA to respond to questions from Count Otto von Lambsdorff. I note that he is particularly concerned about the position of ethnic Indians and Pakistanis in Hong Kong post-1997.
2.
The claims of ethnic Indians in Hong Kong that they risked statelessness post-1997 are regularly aired in Hong Kong. Their continued right of abode in Hong Kong after 1997 is not in doubt and no one will be made stateless as a result of change in sovereignty. As it happens, this subject was raised with Foreign Office and Home Office Ministers earlier this month in London by visiting Legislative Counsellors from Hong Kong. In addition to some unclassified background on nationality questions, I am sending to you a copy of the briefing on which we drew to prepare for these meetings (and at the risk of bogging you down, extracts from the sections referred to in the briefing of the Basic Law the Joint Declaration and the Hong Kong (British Nationality) Order 1986.) FCO telno 76 to Hong Kong (attached) gives an account of the call on the Secretary of State.
3. I believe that this gives you the material to answer the questions you raise. To take your points of detail in order. Anyone who has lived in Hong Kong for five years is eligible to register as a British Dependent Territories Citizen (BDTC). As you will note from these papers, right of abode post-1997 is assured for all BDTCs (who will become British Nationals Overseas or British Overseas Citizens after the transfer of sovereignty see the unclassified background brief on nationality). The question of exactly who will gain Chinese nationality is not cut and dried. The Chinese have so far resisted any attempts to pin them down on just what constitutes Chinese nationality. The Chinese do not recognise dual nationality, so where an individual holds both a British and a Chinese passport, the Chinese recognise only the Chinese nationality. We cannot therefore assure Consular protection post 1997 in Hong Kong (which will become the Special
nationality.NAT
JEB