PRC's Policy Towards Hong Kong Chinese British Subjects
Introduction
The issue of Chinese British Subjects became important politically
only when this issue became explosive, sensitive and offered no easy
solution in the Sino-British negotiations over the sovereignty of Hong
Kong after 1997. In their negotiations, Britain and China have not yet
reached an agreement of how the nationality of the 2.5 million Hong Kong
British Subjects should be settled after June 30, 1997, when
Chinese
Hong Kong sovereignty will be returned to China.
Before the negotiation of Hong Kong
The British position is clear.
sovereignty had started, Britain had passed a new Nationality Law of
1980 to put herself on record that she would not be obligated by the
British subjects of Hong Kong after 1997. In this new Nationality
Britain freed herself from the burden
2
following measures. First by
Kingdom and Colonies" into
Law,
of British Subjects by three
redefining "Citizenship of the United
three classifications: that of British
Citizenship, British Dependent Territories Citizenship (hereafter BDTC),
and British Overseas Citizenship (hereafter BOC); secondly, by imposing
new
restrictions on the "right of abode" to U.K.
"
to both BDTC and BOC.
It is obvious that without the "right of abode, the British will not
need to worry that ex-colonists will migrate to the U.K. when a colony
is set to become independent. It is also obvious that once dependency
is lost, the U.K. will not be obliged to give protection to those people
whose citizenship was connected to the U.K. only when the dependency was
right before the negotiation of Hong
valid. This new enactment came
Kong sovereignty started.
The British denied that the
related to Hong Kong British
new Nationality Law was directly
Subjects. But when over 80% of all
existing BDTC are staying in Hong Kong, observers generally believe that
1 -
Page 90Page 91
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.