CONCERN over the right of abode of 40,000 Hong Kong foreign passport holders after 1997 will be reflected in the forthcoming Sino-British Joint Liaison Group meeting. The Legco house committee will today endorse a paper stating its views on the issue, and the contents will be conveyed to the British Government during its negotiations with China. The paper contains the principles agreed by the security panel and sub-committee on nationality and says: Once a person has acquired the right of abode in Hong Kong, he/she shall continue to have it even after the transfer of sovereignty in 1997; No one shall lose his/her right of abode in Hong Kong by reason of a subsequent change of nationality and/or the loss of his/her Chinese nationality; If the above cannot be achieved, anyone who has lost his/her right of abode in/after 1997 may regain it by a simple and certain procedure; and Foreign nationals who have ordinarily resided in Hong Kong for a continuous period of not less than seven years and have taken Hong Kong as their place of permanent residence before or after 1997 be entitled to acquire right of abode through a similarlysimple and certain procedure. The first two points call for a separation of a person's nationality from his or her right of abode in Hong Kong. Chinese nationality law does not recognise dual nationality and stipulates that anyone who holds a foreign passport or takes up residence in another country will automatically lose Chinese citizenship. The Government suggested two months ago that about 40,000 Hong Kong residents could lose their right of abode because they had either settled abroad or acquired foreign passports.
