TNAG-2159-FCO40-3079-Hong-Kong-nationality-package-Chinese-views-1990 — Page 51

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Chinese living abroad with foreign passports as foreign nationals.

3. The Joint Declaration places the following restrictions on holding office in the SAR:

(a) JD 74 states that British and other foreign nationals may be

public servants except for heads of major government departments and

deputy heads of some (unspecified)..

(b) JD 46 states that Government and Legislature should be composed

of local inhabitants.

(c) JD 64 provides that judges may be recruited from other Common

Law jurisdictions.

4. The Basic Law further provides that the following posts respectively should be restricted to Chinese citizens: the Chief Executive, members of the Executive Council, principal officials of

the Hong Kong SAR, the President of the Legislative Council and the

Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal and the Chief Judge of

the High Court. It also limites to 20% the proportion of the

legislative which may hold foreign nationality. We have pointed out

to the Chinese that nationality restrictions on key posts may

severely limit the numbers of suitable candidates. However, we have generally accepted that the Chinese would wish to limit certain posts to Chinese nationals and that we cannot claim that this is in

contravention of the JD.

5. It is clear that Chinese leaders are very suspicious of our

motives. They appear to believe that by granting passports to key personnel we are seeking to extend British influence in Hong Kong

beyond 1997. We cannot expect them to support the package, but our

aim should be to dispel their suspicions as far as we can, and to

get them to say as little as possible in public.

International Support

6. Since announcing our nationality package, we have been taking every opportunity to encourage our partners and allies, especially

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