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be the subject of claims for duties and obligations that China imposes on ordinary citizens, including compulsory military service.
IV. NATIONality ProbleMS OF CHINESE RESIDENTS IN HONG KONG and Macao
The greatest challenge facing the PRC's Nationality Law, and per- haps the one of most immediate concern, is its application to Chinese residents of Hong Kong and Macao. After two years of laborious and often tense negotiations, on September 26, 1984 Britain and China ini- tialled a "Joint Declaration" on the future of Hong Kong settling the terms of the transfer of power over this territory.17 Under this Joint Declaration, which has been acknowledged by both Governments to have binding effect as an ordinary international agreement, Britain will "restore" Hong Kong to China, and China will "resume the exer- cise of sovereignty" over the colony on July 1, 1997.199
According to the Joint Declaration, China will establish a Special Administrative Region (SAR) for Hong Kong by a basic law enacted in accordance with its 1982 Constitution." China guarantees the con- tinuity of Hong Kong's capitalist socio-economic system and lifestyle for fifty years after 1997, and promises to vest in the region a high degree of autonomous executive and legislative power, as well as an
107. The initialed text entitled Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong (hereinafter cited as Joint Declara- tion] (see infra app. I for the Joint Declaration and annex I thereto) cousists of a joint declaration and three annexes. Associated with the Joint Declaration are two separate memoranda on the nationality of Hong Kong residents, to be formally exchanged by the two Governments on the same day as the signature of the Joint Declaration (December 1984) and the exchange of instruments of ratification (by June 1985). For the full text in English, see the white paper published by Her Majesty's Government in London (Sept. 1984) entitled A Draft Agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Future of Hong Kong (hereinafter cited as British White Paper on Hong Kong]; and Documents, Bruing Ræv. No. 40, Oct. 1. 1984. Excerpts of the text are re- printed in the N.Y. Times, Sept. 27, 1984, at A14, col. 1. The Chinese text is found in Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Guowuyuan Gongbao No. 24. Oct. 20, 1984, at 823; and Zhongguo Fazhi Bao (Chinese Legal System News), Sept. 28, 1984, at 2-3.
108. See British White Paper on Hong Kong, supra note 107. at 5; and the Report to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on the Hong Kong Question (Nov. 6, 1984), reprinted in Zhongguo Fazhi Bao, Nov. 7, 1984, at 1-2.
109. Joint Declaration, infra app. I, annex I, art. I.
110. PRC CONST. art. 31 states: "The state may establish special administrative re- gions when necessary. The systems to be instituted in special administrative regions shail be prescribed by law enacted by the National People's Congress in the light of the spe- cific conditions.”
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