WORLD : Britain Will Grant Citizenship to 50,000 VIPs in Honh Kong
LONDON — Britain said today it will grant full citizenship to 50,000 key Hong Kong Chinese bureaucrats and entrepreneurs and their families, giving a total of about 225,000 Hong Kong Chinese the right to settle in Britain.
Right-wing legislators in the governing Conservative Party threatened a parliamentary rebellion against what one called a “hideous” wave of immigration.
Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd told Parliament that full British passports, immediately valid, will be issued to 50,000 “heads of household” before the colony’s transfer to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
The keenly awaited nationality package was promised to the colony by Britain after the Chinese army crushed pro-democracy student demonstrations in Beijing last June, torpedoing confidence among Hong Kong citizens about their future under China’s rule.
About 3.25 million of Hong Kong’s 5.7 million people hold British passports, but the partial documents give them no right to live in Britain.
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