Figures reveal thousands from ethnic minorities have won naturalisation

Despite a rash of complaints that Hong Kong's ethnic minorities are being discriminated against when they try to become naturalised Chinese citizens, new official figures reveal that thousands of Pakistanis, Indonesians, Indians, Vietnamese and Filipinos have been granted the status.

The figures published this week cast a different light on some recent high-profile cases, which appeared to show that getting naturalisation as a Chinese citizen was virtually impossible.

In one recent case, Professor Shekhar Madhukar Kumta from India was denied Chinese citizenship in September, despite 23 years' residence in Hong Kong and extensive contributions to his field locally and on the mainland. Kumta, 55, the assistant dean of Chinese University's faculty of medicine, has also worked at Prince of Wales Hospital.

However, figures for applicants naturalised as Chinese nationals from the July 1997 handover until last month show that the Pakistani, Indonesian, Indian, Vietnamese and Filipino nationalities are the top five for becoming naturalised citizens.

In total, 3,411 Pakistanis won approval from Beijing for naturalisation out of the 4,536 who applied from July 1997 to last month. During this period, 3,786 Indonesians applied and 3,399 were granted naturalisation, while 2,487 of the 3,224 Indians who applied were approved. The top countries after this were Vietnam (1,593 applied; 1,115 approved) and the Philippines (570 applied; 387 approved).