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Bureaucracy a hurdle too high

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'I know for a fact that it's not going to happen for me,' says Jennifer Chang Ren-hui - Hong Kong's best show jumper in the current rankings, acknowledging she won't be riding in the Olympics. Chang trains every day and dropped her career two years ago to concentrate on qualifying to represent Hong Kong in the Olympic Games this year. Instead, she has had to let her dream go because no one in the Hong Kong administration can confirm whether or not she would be eligible to compete.

'It's heartbreaking,' says Chang. 'I've put the last two years of my life into this dream of going to the Olympics, and it's been two years of frustration, of not getting an answer. I have the best results, the highest rankings. Why am I not out there?'

Chang is not alone. Cases abound in the history of Hong Kong sport where people of multiple nationalities yet with strong ties to Hong Kong, their home, have not been allowed to represent Hong Kong.

Prompted by the sports problems, questions are now being raised about how to define a Hongkonger.

Does getting a Hong Kong SAR/Chinese passport require Chinese ethnicity? Experts say that in theory it is not racially defined, but aside from a few high-profile exceptions, in practice it seems to be.

In Chang's case, her grandfather Chang Hsin-hai was China's ambassador to Poland, Portugal and Czechoslovakia in the 1930s and '40s. He grandmother Chang Siang-mei was a noted professor.

If Hong Kong wants to be an international city, why is it not more flexible with people of mixed ancestry? Is the seven-year qualification period to become a permanent resident too long?

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