No grounds for consular protection
Professor Michael Davis is right. Article 3 of China’s 1980 Nationality Law states clearly that China does not recognise the possession of dual nationalities by its nationals. And in 1996, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee issued a guideline on the application of the Nationality Law with regard to Hong Kong residents, stating that Chinese nationals of the Hong Kong SAR with right of abode in foreign countries may use travel documents issued by those countries to travel, but in Hong Kong and other parts of China, they do not enjoy foreign consular protection by virtue of those travel documents.
There is no such thing as “Hong Kong citizens” meaning “Hong Kong nationals”. They may be Hong Kong residents, permanent or otherwise, that Canadian immigration minister John McCallum was referring to.
Many ex-Hong Kong Canadian nationals have re-entered Hong Kong on the basis of their permanent resident ID cards to avoid declaring their Canadian nationality, which was acquired without first renouncing the original Chinese nationality and thus not recognised by China. They would travel to the mainland on the basis of the home visit permit and obviously would not enjoy Canadian consular protection there.
Those who had first renounced Chinese nationality before acquiring Canadian nationality would of course enjoy Canadian consular protection in China. Canada may well have a supply of such applicants if the independent Hong Kong campaigners get “excommunicated”.
Peter Lok, Chai Wan