TNAG-0949-FCO40-1168-Effect-of-nuclear-exports-to-China-on-Hong-Kong-Guangdong-nu-1980 — Page 35

CONFIDENTIAL

CALL ON THE PRIME MINISTER BY SIR LAWRENCE KADOORIE : 30 JULY

UK/HONG KONG RELATIONS

ESSENTIAL FACTS

NEW NATIONALITY LAW

1. HMG have agreed to establish a separate category of citizenship

for the dependent territories as a whole. The White Paper on a New

British Nationality Law, due to be published about the end of July, suggests that the title should be 'Citizenship of the British

Dependent Territories', but allows for the possibility of further

discussion. Hong Kong, which is in any case unhappy about the

abandonment of a unitary system of citizenship, has argued that the

term 'British Subject' should be retained. The proposed changes are

seen by some in Hong Kong as distancing the territory from the UK.

OVERSEAS STUDENTS' FEES

2. HMG's decision to raise the recommended level of tuition fees

for overseas students has roused considerable feeling in Hong Kong,

in view of the territory's special relationship with the UK. This

is aggravated by the fact that students from the French overseas

territories and from Gibraltar are classified as home students. At

the close of the Adjournment Debate on this subject in the Commons

on 10 July, Mr Rhodes Boyson, Minister of State for Education and Science, undertook to monitor in October 1980 the effect of the

higher fees on student admissions, while giving no guarantee that the

policy would be changed. He confirmed HMG's readiness to help

Hong Kong in the development of its higher education system.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION FROM CHINA

3. Levels of illegal immigration have risen in the course of 1980

from an average of about 135 per day in January to over 300 per day in June and July. Present policy is that those who reach base,

ie the urban areas of Hong Kong, are not repatriated. There is local pressure to change this.

/VIETNAMESE

IDENTIAL