British Nationality Law And Hong Kong
British nationality law as it pertains to Hong Kong has been unusual ever since Hong Kong became a British colony in 1842. From its beginning as a sparsely populated trading port to today's cosmopolitan international financial centre of over seven million people, the territory has attracted refugees, immigrants and expatriates alike searching for a new life.
Citizenship matters were complicated by the fact that British nationality law treated those born in Hong Kong as British subjects (although they did not enjoy full rights and citizenship), while the People's Republic of China (PRC) did not recognise Hong Kong Chinese as British. The main reason being that recognising these people as British would be seen as tacit acceptance of a series of treaties which the PRC labels as "unequal" - including the ones which ceded Hong Kong island, the Kowloon peninsula and later Hong Kong's New Territories to the UK.
Read more about British Nationality Law And Hong Kong: Early Colonial Era, After The Sino-British Joint Declaration, Chinese View On Nationality of Hong Kong Residents, Future of BN(O) Status: Lord Goldsmith's Citizenship Review in 2008, Franchise in The United Kingdom
Famous quotes containing the words british, nationality and/or law:
“Give a scientist a problem and he will probably provide a solution; historians and sociologists, by contrast, can offer only opinions. Ask a dozen chemists the composition of an organic compound such as methane, and within a short time all twelve will have come up with the same solution of CH4. Ask, however, a dozen economists or sociologists to provide policies to reduce unemployment or the level of crime and twelve widely differing opinions are likely to be offered.”
—Derek Gjertsen, British scientist, author. Science and Philosophy: Past and Present, ch. 3, Penguin (1989)
“If nationality is consent, the state is compulsion.”
—Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821–1881)
“The law is equal before all of us; but we are not all equal before the law. Virtually there is one law for the rich and another for the poor, one law for the cunning and another for the simple, one law for the forceful and another for the feeble, one law for the ignorant and another for the learned, one law for the brave and another for the timid, and within family limits one law for the parent and no law at all for the child.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)