Hong Kongers with dual nationality are not entitled to foreign consular assistance, the city leader said, confirming the warnings from Western diplomats that the authorities had strictly enforced Chinese nationality regulations.
Hong Kong CEO Carrie Lam confirmed on Tuesday that although residents could have multiple passports, dual nationality was not recognized in Hong Kong under China’s national legislation.
“That [law] has a very specific stipulation that people [who] “foreign citizenship or right of residence elsewhere … are considered Chinese citizens in Hong Kong,” Lam said. “Nor will they be eligible for consular protection, including consular visits,” she added, unless given permission to renounce their Chinese nationality.
The Department of Foreign Affairs of Canada announced last week that a dual citizen in the Hong Kong prison must make a declaration to choose a single nationality.
The revelation drew diplomats from Britain, Canada and the United States, given the potential implications for hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers with dual nationality, and those traveling there for business and tourism.
Beijing’s leading legislature set the rules for the implementation of nationality in Hong Kong in 1996 – the year before the handover of Britain. As a result, Hong Kong officials have described the move to reject consular assistance to dual citizens as nothing new.
However, Western diplomats say there has been a concrete policy change because they have had no problem visiting dual citizens in detention before.
No Hong Kong official, including Lam, has publicly paid attention to the order to tighten nationality rules.
On Monday night, the British consulate changed its travel advice after saying that ‘Hong Kong, like other parts of China, does not recognize dual nationality’.
“If you have both British and Chinese nationality, you could be treated as a Chinese citizen by local authorities, even if you enter Hong Kong with your British passport,” the consulate warned. “If that is the case, the British Consulate may not be able to offer you consular assistance.”
The apparent change comes amid clashes between Beijing and Western countries over its suppression in the financial center after 2019’s widespread democracy protests.
The change is likely to affect ethnic Chinese citizens in Hong Kong.
The mainland of China has even stricter laws on dual citizenship that stipulate that people may not own the passport of another country – although many, especially wealthy elites, simply keep it a secret. In January, the United Kingdom began offering extended visas to holders of British national (overseas) passports to which all Hong Kongers born before the 1997 handover were entitled.
Beijing responded by announcing that the passports would no longer be recognized.