Why keep asking?

I am a Hong Kong-born Chinese holding a permanent identity card with three asterisks. I am also a resident of Singapore and the UK.

Every time I return to Hong Kong on my identity card the officer at the immigration counter asks where I have come from.

I am never asked this question on arrival in Singapore or Britain.

I wonder what the Immigration Department does with this information and whether I have the right to decline to answer, because of concerns over my privacy.

CARL YEH

Jardine's Lookout