TNAG-2188-FCO40-3125-Hong-Kong-nationality-package-1990 — Page 179

нко 340/14

RECEIVED

EGISTRY

1 0 APR 1990

DESK OFFICER

PA

REGISTRY Action Taken

9 JAN 1990

FROM:

David Lidington

DATE:

9 January 1990

C.C.

Mr McLaren

Mr Paul, HKD

Mr David Davis MP

iz

Mr Maude

INDEX

(Septed

HONG KONG NATIONALITY PACKAGE : STANDARD LETTERS

1. I have seen Mr Paul's submission of 8 January

2.

I have no comments on draft A which I presume is designed for people who support the Ashdown approach to the nationality question.

3.

I am not happy with draft B. I suggest deleting the third and fourth paragraphs of the draft and inserting the following:

"It is also in our interests to keep Hong Kong prosperous. Many jobs in this country depend upon it. Britain's total trade with the territory amounts to over £4 billion a year. Our investments there exceed £2 billion. About 1,000 British companies operate in Hong Kong.

་་

Both

Last June's tragic events in Tiananmen Square caused shock waves in Hong Kong. Both the territory's prosperity and its good government are being put at risk by the emigration from the territory of its most talented and highly qualified people. the private and public sectors are affected. Experienced managers, engineers, doctors, nurses and teachers from Hong Kong find that their skills are in demand in countries like Canada and Australia. The great majority of these professionals would rather stay in Hong Kong. They are almost all ethnic Chinese and their families and careers are in the territory. But they also want the assurance which possession of foreign citizenship and a foreign passport give

the assurance that if necessary they could leave Hong Kong quickly and be admitted to a different country. Ideally, they would like some means of obtaining a foreign passport while they continued to live and work in Hong Kong, but at present they can normally only qualify for foreign citizenship and a foreign passport by actually leaving the territory to make a new life overseas.

/The