Even to give people a right to register as full British citizens would cast suspicion both on Britain's motives and on the motives of those who elected to exercise it. There are also many people in Hong Kong who feel that the offer of British citizenship would be a diversion, which would prevent some Hong Kong people (particularly the relatively well-off middle classes) from working for a new Hong Kong identity as part of China, which would benefit all Hong Kong's people, including those who are not British nationals and who have no other options.
The different perspectives within Hong Kong and the political realities in China and Britain all prevent any simple, sweeping rewriting of Hong Kong's recent nationality history. Yet this does not absolve Britain, as the colonial power and the country of citizenship, from looking at ways of adjusting British nationality law so as to provide some sort of security for some of the people of Hong Kong.
AN INSURANCE POLICY
"If you go on a plane flight and you take out insurance, it doesn't mean you're planning to commit suicide."
senior member of the Legislative Council
The widespread concern about nationality does not mean that people want to leave Hong Kong, or that, even if they did, they would choose to go to Britain. Quite the reverse: people want to stay in the country which may have been their home for generations; all they ask is that Britain, the country of their citizenship, should give them some sort of safety net, or insurance policy, which will provide them with the security they need to feel confident of planning their own and their children's future in Hong Kong. The Assessment team recorded one group of respondents as saying 'We do not care what happens to Hong Kong for our sake. However, we care for our children'17; during our visit, we lost count of the number of times that was said to us.
This in no way implies a belief that China is inherently untrustworthy - if anything, it is Britain whose bona fides is most questioned in Hong Kong. However, it is an inevitable consequence of the changes required in Hong Kong and the inability of anyone to guarantee the future that many people who have no desire at all to leave Hong Kong will nevertheless seek some personal insurance for themselves and their immediate families, just in case'.
People who can do so are writing their own insurance policies;
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