CONFIDENTIAL
CHINA'S NATIONALITY LAW
1. The Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was adopted on 10 September 1980 at the Third Session of the Fifth National People's Congress (NPC) and was promulgated by order of the Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee on the same day. The Law came into immediate effect. The official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, published an "unofficial translation" of the Law on 14 September 1980. A copy of this translation is attached.
Background
2. This is the first Nationality Law adopted by the PRC. It covers the nationality status both of Chinese born in China and of persons of Chinese descent born abroad. But its main practical effect is on Chinese abroad.
3. According to a commentary published in the official Peking Review (No 45, 1980), the Law represents as an attempt to combine the principles of ius sanguinis (under which nationality status is transmitted from parents to children) and ius soli (determination of nationality by place of birth). Thus it marks a break with the nationality laws of previous Chinese governments, the latest of which was adopted in 1929, which were based on the principle of ius sanguinis, regarding persons of Chinese race as Chinese nationalis irrespective of their places of residence, their own attitudes and the attitudes of the governments in their countries of residence.
4.
The PRC government had not clarified its attitude to the 1929 Nationality Law, but statements made by PRC leaders in the early years after the Communist victory in 1949 gave the impression that they continued to follow the principle of ius sanguinis. For example Chinese official statements in the early 1950s referred to 11 or 12 million Overseas Chinese (ie a rough estimate of the total number of persons of Chinese race residing overseas at that time) as part of the PRC's population and the Overseas Chinese were deemed to be represented by delegates to the PRC's National People's Congress.
5. By the mid-1950s, however, Chinese policy had begun to shift towards greater emphasis on the principle of ius soli. In 1954, the then Prime Minister, Zhou Enlai, announced the PRC Government's readiness to solve the problem of the nationality of Overseas Chinese, beginning with those South East Asian countries with which it had diplomatic relations. Subsequently
CONFIDENTIAL
/negotiations
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.