CHINA is set to keep a proposal under which emigrants who want to retain their right of abode must return before July 1, next year, despite calls to scrap it.
Detailed studies of the issue have failed to alter Beijing's stance.
Those with foreign nationality will only get permanent residency in the Special Administrative Region if they consider themselves Chinese nationals, according to a senior Beijing official.
The remarks indicate Beijing is sticking to the cut-off date adopted by the now-defunct Preliminary Working Committee despite criticism and doubts raised locally, and signs of a change of stance after Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind's visit.
The Beijing official said whether the returnees were eligible for permanent resident status after 1997 depended on their nationality.
'If they are not of Chinese nationality they will have to stay for a continuous period of not less than seven years if they want to become permanent residents.
'But if those emigrants say they have always been Chinese nationals for generations and they want to keep their Chinese nationality in the SAR, they will be given permanent residency automatically,' the official said.