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There is one disadvantage, more cosmetic than real: approxi- mately half Hong Kong "nationals" claim British rather than Chinese nationality. A Hong Kong Chinese person claiming British nationality will be rejected for this Taiwanese passport.
The solution is to "lose" your identity card. When you apply for a replacement, claim Chinese nationality.
You cannot, however, reverse this process: again "lose" your ID card and seek a replacement with the original claim of British nationality. It appears you can only change "nationality claimed" from British to Chinese; not from Chinese to British.
Illegal means of getting a passport
There are basically two methods of gaining a passport ille- gally. The first is to pass yourself off as a national of the country: apply for a passport using the birth certificate of a person born about the same time as you, but who has subsequently died. (This will only work in a country where birth and death. records are not matched up.) Or, by claiming to have been born in a place where the birth records have been destroyed for some reason--say, by a fire in the county court house.
The second method involves falsifying your record of residency. It's easiest to do this in Canada: the Canadian/US border is the world's longest unguarded international boundary.
To cross that border, all you require is a driving license issued by either country. And if you drive from say Vancouver to Seattle on a busy Sunday afternoon, the chances are you'll be waved through the border posts without even a cursory inspection.
Apparently, people from Hong Kong are notorious for taking advantage of this border. Having once gained the right to reside in Canada, they cross to the United States without leaving a record on either side, and return to Hong Kong. They leave the address of a friend or relative to receive mail so they have an address in Canada, and will be warned by their friend if there's any need to return to Canada to retain their resident status.
Towards the end of the required 3-year residency period, they return to Canada by the reverse route. Of course, they must then "lose" their passport--which will show the entry and exit in Hong Kong. This could be their downfall, since they'll have to nofity the Canadian authorities that they've lost their all-important
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