HONG KONG BILL
REVISED NOTES ON CLAUSES
INTRODUCTION
CONFIDENTIAL
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1. A Bill is required to implement the Joint Declaration of Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the People's
Republic of China on the question of Hong Kong (published as a White Paper, command 9352). The Joint Declaration was signed by the
British and Chinese Prime Ministers on 19 December 1984 in Peking.
2.
Paragraph 8 of the Joint Declaration states that
that instruments of
ratification will be exchanged before 30 June 1985. It is therefore
necessary to put the Hong Kong Bill through all its stages as rapidly as possible.
3.
over
Legislation is necessary in two respects to allow us to ratify the agreement: first to provide for the termination of sovereignty
the ceded parts of Hong Kong and the termination of
jurisdiction over the whole territory as from 1 July 1997, and
second to accord diplomatic privileges and immunities to the Chinese
members of the Joint Liaison Group who will attend meetings of the Group in London. Ministers have decided that two other associated
subjects should be included in the Bill: an enabling clause to allow
a subsequent Order or Orders in Council in order to implement the UK Memorandum on nationality associated with the agreement and to make
other necessary provisions relating to nationality, and a further
enabling clause to allow technical amendments to be made to UK
legislation.
In the event of parliamentary opposition which
threatened to delay the Bill's passage, and hence ratification,
these two aspects of the legislation could in the final resort be
dropped and dealt with in a separate Bill.
4. Although the Bill is
the opportunity to debate
the endorsement of the
fairly narrow in scope Lords may well use the whole future of Hong Kong. Following agreement by the people of Hong Kong, the
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