acknowledged their unique identity as Hong Kong British. The Hong Kong Observers, one of the oldest of the Hong Kong pressure groups, wrote that such a citizenship would 'further a sense of belonging. We may be Chinese but we belong to Hong Kong... the people of Hong Kong must think about their future and what they want, not in terms of security for their investments alone, but in terms of a place to bring up a family, where they would like to be buried'.
Instead, Hong Kong found itself lumped with such unlikely partners as the Falkland Islands, St Helena and British Antarctica in the 'catch-all' category of British Dependent Territories citizenship which included the citizens of all British colonial territories which had not yet gained independence.
Yet the crucial fact about Hong Kong was that it could never become independent.
THE FUTURE OF HONG KONG
'Members of the United Nations which have... responsibility for the administration of territories whose people have not yet attained a full measure of self-government recognise the principle that the interests of the inhabitants of these territories are paramount, and accept as a sacred trust the obligation to promote to the utmost... the well-being of the inhabitants'
Article 73, Chapter XI, United Nations Charter
'Self-determination in the strict sense has no part to play in determining Hong Kong's future'
Ivor Stanbrook MP.?
Unlike other British colonies, Hong Kong is not moving from colonialism to self-government: one member of the Executive Council said to us, 'We have been a British colony. Are we now to become a colony of China?' The young professionals, the university graduates, the senior civil servants, the members of the Executive and Legislative Councils and the grassroots activists who are now prominent in Hong Kong are exactly the people who, in the normal process of decolonisation, would be looking forward to running their own country: they might differ fundamentally about how that country ought to be run, but its future would be their ultimate responsibility.
This is not the case for the people of Hong Kong: their future has been decided for them in a deal between two great powers, who, although they are ideologically opposed, have in common certain
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