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Meeting with the Indian Resources Group (IRG)
Ms Emily LAU welcomed Mr Kishore Sakhrani and his team. She informed them that the Subcommittee was finalizing its report to the House Committee on the nationality of ethnic minorities and would therefore like to have their views on the recent remark made by Mr LU Ping, Director of the state Council's Hong Kong and Macau office, to the delegation of the Indian Chamber of Commerce.
2.
Mr Kishore Sakhrani thanked Members for the invitation. He referred Members to their written representation (which was tabled) and pointed out that the word "unclear" in line 14 of para 3 on page 1 should read "clear". Representatives of the IRG said that the assurance given by Mr LU Ping had also raised many questions and uncertainties which were highlighted in their representation. They pointed out that not all Indians would feel comfortable to become Chinese nationals because of the small number of non-Chinese nationals in China. They said that their request for full British nationality had not been changed despite Mr LU Ping's statement. They also confirmed that there was no split in opinion in the Indian community on the nationality issue.
3.
Ms Emily LAU thanked the representatives and advised them that this recent development together with their stance would be included in the report for the House Committee.
(Representatives of the Indian Resources Group left the meeting at this point.)
Meeting with the Administration
Nationality of ethnic minorities
A.
Ms Emily LAU welcomed Mr Keith Kwok, Dr Simon Vickers and Mr K S CHEUNG and gave them a copy of representation of the IRG.
5.
Dr Simon Vickers said that Mr LU Ping's statement was a useful confirmation that China welcomed the stay of the Indian community in Hong Kong through 1997. This positive attitude of the Chinese Government should be able to diminish the Indians' fear that they would be treated worse than Hong Kong Chinese after 1997. The Hong Kong Government would maintain its neutral stance, i.e. it would neither encourage nor discourage the ethnic minorities to apply for the BNS or to be Chinese nationals. With regard to the "effective statelessness" of ethnic minorities who did not take up Chinese citizenship, it was to some extent a matter of opinion or definition but the Hong Kong Government did not accept that the ethnic minorities would become stateless after 1997, because their BNO passports would confer a nationality on them and accord British consular protection to them. I right of abode in Hong Kong