TNAG-1844-FCO40-2619-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 75

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TRANSCRIPT D: HONG KONG SELECT COWNITTEE MEETING

22 MAR 89

MR.

ROVLABIA).

You have rested the case primarily on history and I recall

as a Minister for the Dependent Territories in my Foreign Office days, that the general argument was that in fact most of the dependent territories would be moving to independence and thereby creating their own citizenship and that was the basic distinction,

but you have in the case of Hong Kong people where that process

cannot happen, cannot be

FOREIGN SECRETARY:

You have a different feature there,

don't you, because

independence was never

never an option for Hong Kong.

―

The destination

for Hong Kong was reversion to Chinese sovereignty and it is one of the features on which China is understandably most insistent:

that they are compatriots, they are people who enjoy and will

enjoy Chinese citizenship. China in fact I think it is not

alone in it has Dever welcomed the idea of dual citizenship and

of the achievement of the legitimacy of the BIO passport, which is

more than merely a document it is something that will

it the prospect of British consular protection something over and above what would have been implied from the

absence of independence as a destination.

carry

is itself

with

That, I think, is why

Hong Kong is in this respect as many others, different.

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