TNAG-1566-FCO40-2131-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-and-passports-Hong-Kong-(Br-1986 — Page 67

HONG KONG

DRAFT ORDER IN COUNCIL

HAH 30011 нин

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

13 MAY 1986

705

DESK OFFICER

INDEX

PA

RAUSINY Aseth Taken

BACKGROUND NOTE :

1.

NATIONALITY MATTERS

Negotiations with the Chinese on the nationality status of Hong Kong

British Dependent Territories citizens (BDTC) after 1 July 1997 proved to

be particularly difficult. This was because the Chinese Government have

refused to accept that Chinese "compatriots" in Hong Kong are anything other

than Chinese nationals.

The negotiations

were further complicated by the fact that Chinese nationality law does not

recognise dual nationality and the Chinese could not therefore recognise

explictly that Chinese nationals also had British passports.

2.

the

Nationality is a particularly sensitive issue in Hong Kong. There is

a widely held belief in the territory that the British Nationality Act 1981

was introduced with the express purpose of giving the people of Hong Kong

a second class form of British nationality and preventing them emigrating

to the UK as 1997 approached. In/light of these suspicions the Hong Kong

Executive Council urged us strongly to press for a continued form of British

nationality for Hong Kong BDTCs after 1997, and the continued ability to

transmit that status to their children. This was however unattainable and

a compromise was agreed in an exchange of memoranda associated with the

Joint Declaration whereby the Chinese Government would permit former Hong

Kong BDTCs to continue to travel after 1997 on travel documents issued by

the British authorities

?

But in keeping with their view that all

vestiges of the colonial past should disappear on 1 July 1997, they insisted

that the passports had to be acquired before 1 July 1997.

3.

The UK Memorandum associated with the agreement therefore provides that

the new nationality status (namely British National (Overseas)) may only

be acquired by Hong Kong BDTCs if they hold or are included in a British

passport describing them as having that status, issued before 1 July 1997

(or before the end of 1997 in the case of persons born in the first 6 months

VK Meira - plynu

of that year). The agreement is unique in thus making the holding of a passport essential for retaining the status of British National (Overseas). THIS IS A COPY

THE ORIGINAL HAS BEEN

CLOSED UNDER

FOI EXEMPTION NO.2

C.LI