- Residents of Chinese descent from Hong Kong or the mainland are considered Chinese nationals, no matter what other passports they have
- A Chinese Hongkonger born in the city with a British passport is not eligible for protection from the country’s consulate
Those holding both Chinese and British citizenship will be treated as only Chinese nationals by Hong Kong, city leader Carrie Lam says. Photo: BloombergHong Kong does not recognise dual nationality, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Tuesday, a day after London warned that Chinese-British nationals might not get consular assistance if they entered the city on their British passports.
Lam told reporters her government was “strictly enforcing” the policy that Hong Kong residents of Chinese descent who were born in the city or on the mainland were considered Chinese nationals and therefore not entitled to British consular protection, even with a British passport.
“When people have foreign nationality or right of abode elsewhere … they are [still] regarded as Chinese nationals in Hong Kong,” she said.
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“They will not be eligible for consular protection, including consular visits, so that is very clear.”
Lam said that was “a very specific provision” of the 1997 return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule.
Updated travel advice posted to Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office websites on Monday said the British consulate had been told “that Hong Kong, like other parts of China, does not recognise dual nationality”.
The update advised those who had “formally renounced Chinese citizenship” to “carry evidence” of that when travelling to Hong Kong or mainland China.
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Canada’s foreign affairs department reported last week that a dual-national imprisoned in Hong Kong had been required to make a declaration of nationality last month.
In a statement, a spokesman for the Hong Kong Security Bureau explained that unless the Immigration Department had approved a person’s application to renounce their Chinese nationality, they were still considered Chinese.
Lam on Tuesday also said that under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, only foreign nationals were entitled to consular protection.
“If a particular person [with dual nationality] is in one of the places or countries where they possess citizenship, then they are not eligible for this sort of consular protection … That’s a general rule applied to all countries and places,” she added.