TNAG-2939-FCO40-4215-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-ethnic-minorities-1993 — Page 84

SECURTET DRHIVA

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they will not lose their British nationality on 1 July

1997 by which time, if they have not, already they may

obtain BN(0) passports. If they do not, they will become

British Overseas Citizensautomatically after that date.

In either case, they do not become stateless. After 1997,

if these people do not have the right of abode elsewhere,

they will have the right of abode in the Hong Kong Special

Administrative Region as provided for under the Joint

Declaration and reflected in Article 24(2)(6) of the Basic

They will, at the same time, retain their British

nationality. They will be eligible for British passport

facilities, and for British consular protection in the

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. This latter is

something that Chinese holders of BN (0) passports will not

be entitled to. The "vulnerability" which some members of

the LegCo Sub-Committee have mentioned should not,

therefore, be an issue in this sense.

Law.

Nor is it apparently an issue in the other sense

vis-a-vis China. I have noted in this connection that the

Director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office of the

Chinese Government, Mr LU Ping, has recently reaffirmed

assurances and informed members of the Indian Chamber of

Commerce on a visit to Beijing, that ethnic minorities

such as Indians might apply for Chinese citizenship as

well as Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passports

after the change of sovereignty. This is the most obvious

course out of statelessness for anyone not satisfied with

the BN(0) status, and it seems to remove the case for