TNAG-1570-FCO40-2136-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-and-passports-Hong-Kong-(Br-1986 — Page 102

Kuomintang agents from Hong Kong, were arrested without outside concern,

even though they were Hong Kong British subjects.

29

Apparently,

this

device of "compatriots" provides Peking with a firm ground to prosecute

those arrested on the one hand, and to deter those attemptors, on the

other hand. The political device of "compatriots" has undoubtedly

allowed Peking to disarm the Kuomintang from making Hong Kong a shelter

to launch a political conspiracy against Communist rule on the mainland.

Thirdly, as the Kuomintang has always worried, the PRC is using the

nationality

issue to penalize the Kuomintang politically.

that the PRC had made

It is said

use of this issue to pre-empt Kuomintang

when overseas Chinese were forced to choose

supporters in Indonesia,

either the PRC or Republic of Indonesia as their nationality,

under the

It

Dual Nationality Treaty reached by Zhou Eng-lai and Sukarno in 1956.

was pointed out by Kuomintang sources, that many of its supporters were

having trouble under this Dual Nationality Treaty because it gave them

no choice to remain Kuomintang, as they had been able to do so even in a

sort of ambiguous way. Under this dual nationality treaty, all Chinese

in Indonesia had to make a choice within two years; otherwise, they

30 would become PRC nationals under PRC jurisdictional control.

By the same token, the settlement indicated in the Sino-British

Agreement on Hong Kong, would also have this same impact on the

Kuomintang. It is a well known fact that there are still people in Hong

Kong who are identified with, or holding documents of Kuomintang

nationals.

definitely no

Under the Sino-British Agreement, there is

political room for them to discuss or to announce this identity

publicly. For these Kuomintang supporters, unless they choose to leave

Hong Kong as they did in Indonesia, they will have to choose to become

PRC nationals, or to remain BNO, if they are currently British subjects.

Yet even if they remain BNO, they would have to come under PRC rule,

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