Hong Kong Executive Council member Regina Ip recently advocated that the central government should strictly enforce the Chinese Nationality Law prohibiting dual nationality, so that Hong Kong people holding foreign nationality would automatically lose their SAR passports, right of abode in Hong Kong and right to vote, which has aroused heated debates. (Photo credit: Public Domain)
Hong Kong Executive Council member and pro-China legislator Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee recently proposed that the Central Government should strictly enforce the Chinese Nationality Law prohibiting dual nationality, so that Hong Kong people with foreign nationality would automatically lose their SAR passports, right of abode and right to vote in Hong Kong. This is intended to deal with Hong Kong people who apply to immigrate to the UK on BNO passports, but it may scare a lot of Hong Kong officials and even the second generation of Chinese Communist Party officials, because it is an open “secret” that a large number of Chinese officials and their family members have Hong Kong identity cards and foreign nationality. Will this pandering to Beijing backfire?
In response to Beijing and the Hong Kong government’s crackdown on Hong Kong people with the National Security Law, the British government announced that nearly 5.4 million eligible Hong Kong residents will be able to apply for British National (Overseas) Passport (BNO) visas to immigrate to the UK from January 31. Comprehensive Hong Kong media reports, when the Secretary for Security pushed 23 draconian law of the New People’s Party Chairman Yip Lau Suk-yee recently wrote an article in the South China Morning Post, with the “National Security Law” came into effect, Hong Kong is facing another immigration climax, and quoted the British government estimates that the next five years or more than 250,000 people through the new plan to immigrate, that the Chinese government believes that the United Kingdom has violated the commitment, is considering taking countermeasures.
Ip Liu advocates the central government to interpret the law to prohibit Hong Kong people to have dual nationality
Mrs. Ip suggested that it is time for the Chinese government to “take action” to end the “special treatment” of Hong Kong people for historical reasons and strictly enforce the Chinese Nationality Law, which prohibits dual nationality. She suggested that the authorities could set a definite “cut-off date” so that Hong Kong people who acquire foreign nationality in the future would be deemed to have given up their Chinese nationality of their own free will under Article 9 of the Chinese Nationality Law and would automatically lose their right to hold a SAR passport, the right of abode in Hong Kong and the right to vote. She also threatened that “it is time for Hong Kong people who have decided to leave to make their choice.”
During an appearance on Commercial Radio on January 12, Mrs. Ip explained that Article 9 of the Chinese Nationality Law states that Chinese citizens who settle in a foreign country, voluntarily join or acquire a foreign nationality “shall automatically lose their Chinese nationality”. She said that if Hong Kong people would rather “spend six years in immigration detention” than move to the UK, it proves that they “do not want to be Chinese” and their Chinese nationality should be revoked.
She also suggested that the central government should conduct an interpretation of the law in this regard. Asked whether the proposal is aimed at all countries, not just the UK, she said that logically all countries should be “treated equally”.
Mrs. Ip is a member of the Executive Council, which assists the Chief Executive in making decisions. However, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor seemed to be interested in “drawing a clear line” with her proposal when she met with reporters on the morning of the 12th. The issue of nationality is very sensitive, clarifying that the Executive Council has not discussed the relevant issues, nor how to deal with BNO as a travel document, “I do not want people to misunderstand”.
Lin Zheng did not forget to express loyalty that the Chinese and British governments had a consensus before the transfer of sovereignty, if there is a unilateral deviation, the other side to take action is a matter of course, the Hong Kong Government will cooperate with the country’s countermeasures; but she did not know that any program is being discussed, the SAR Government does not have any response measures at this time.
Hong Kong senior officials have the right of abode in Britain Lin Zheng did not disclose the nationality of family members
The “dual nationality” controversy has aroused heated debate in society. The News 12 quoted senior government officials as saying that many senior government officials who are currently permanent secretaries or heads of departments in Hong Kong joined the government in the 1980s and 1990s, and it is believed that they have obtained the right of abode in Britain through the right of abode scheme in the British Hong Kong era. In response, the authorities responded that the Basic Law does not specify any nationality or passport requirements for civil servants, except for the exceptions provided for in Article 101 of the Basic Law (i.e., the Secretaries of Departments, Deputy Secretaries of Departments, Directors of Bureaux, the Commissioner of the ICAC, the Director of Audit, the Commissioner of Police, the Director of Immigration and the Commissioner of Customs and Excise shall be Chinese citizens who are permanent residents of Hong Kong with no right of abode in any foreign country).
The Apple Daily reported that when Carrie Lam ran for Chief Executive in 2017, she revealed that her family had acquired British nationality 97 years ago, and that she herself renounced her British nationality when she became Secretary for Development in 2007, but her husband and two sons still have British nationality. Since then, she has not responded to the question of whether her family still holds British nationality.
Former CPPCC member Liu Mengxiong wrote an article on the 12th that for historical reasons, Hong Kong people with foreign nationality “hundreds of thousands or even millions”, throughout the political and business professional sectors, including many important consortium heads or political leaders, angrily denouncing Ye Liu Shuk-yee’s proposal “fearing that Hong Kong is not in chaos”.
The second generation of government officials hold more Hong Kong identity cards Standing Committee relatives hiding in Hong Kong
It is not only the general Hong Kong people or officials who are affected by Ye’s proposal. It is an open secret that many of the top families and second-generation officials have Hong Kong identity cards, even up to the level of the Politburo. 2016’s “Panama Papers” revealed that at least seven current or former top officials of China’s central government have offspring or spouses who own offshore companies and hold Hong Kong identity cards, including the then Standing Committee of the Central Politburo They include Zhang Xiaoyan, daughter of Zhang Gaoli, daughter-in-law of Liu Yunshan, Li Xiaobing and her husband Yu Yiping, niece of the late leader Deng Xiaoping, Li Botan, son-in-law of former CPPCC Chairman Jia Qinglin, and his granddaughter Li Zidan, as well as Li Xiaolin, daughter of former State Council Premier Li Peng.
At the time, a reporter went to a separate house in California Garden in Yuen Long, Hong Kong, and found Zhang Gaoli’s daughter Zhang Xiaoyan, who refused to answer how she obtained permanent residence status in Hong Kong. Jia Qinglin’s daughter Jia Qiang was found by the Hong Kong media to be operating a business in Hong Kong under the pseudonym “Lin Qing”.
Lv Bingquan, a senior lecturer in the journalism department at Baptist University, has revealed that it is an open secret in political circles that the children of mainland leaders use Hong Kong as a springboard to dispose of family assets, and that holding a Hong Kong ID card facilitates them to do so. So, how many of them have dual citizenship at the same time?
Why is the “nationality law” not strictly enforced?
Veteran media personality and current affairs commentator Xiao Ruoyuan analyzed on his Youtube channel that the reason why the Chinese Nationality Law is not strictly enforced in Hong Kong and China can be seen from some statistics.
Xiao Ruoyuan said that China today has been mocked as a “Chinese republic of immigrants”, with several members of Xi Jinping‘s family holding Canadian and Australian citizenship. Once their Chinese citizenship is revoked, “will these people be barred from returning to China?” He went on to say that 179 deputies to the National People’s Congress (NPC) and nearly 450 members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), accounting for 6 percent of the deputies, were suspected of holding foreign residency, foreign passports and foreign nationality at the 2013 “two sessions,” which can be described as an “international meeting. ‘international meeting’.” In addition, it is rumored that 90% of the members of the CPC Central Committee, and 85% of the alternate members of the Central Committee and 80% of the members of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection have immediate family members living and working in Western countries or have joined the nationality of the host country.
The second generation of officials and the third generation of officials have U.S. status
He said U.S. government data also allegedly shows that 75 percent of the second generation of Chinese officials above the ministerial level (including those who have retired) have U.S. green cards or citizenship, while they still have mainland household registration. More than 91% of the third generation have U.S. citizenship. All of their children and grandchildren have foreign citizenship and are also Chinese.
Xiao Ruoyuan further counts celebrities with foreign citizenship, including Jiang Zemin’s grandson Jiang Zhicheng, Chen Yun’s son Chen Yuan, Liu Huaqing’s daughter Liu Chaoying, and Bo Xilai’s son Bo Guagua; Wu Guanzheng’s granddaughter and Zhang Wannian’s son Zhang Jianguo, the former secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, settled in the United States; and former Politburo Standing Committee member Zeng Qinghong’s son Zeng Wei is an Australian national.
There are also data showing that in the decade from 1995 to 2005, there were 1.18 million naked officials in the Communist Party of China, nearly 10,000 of whom fled to the West, taking away $1 trillion in funds; children took away $3 or $4 trillion in funds. Xiao Ruoyuan laughingly said: “This is called full of civil servants hiding green cards, half of the rivers and mountains to feed the red.”
Entertainment stars, with foreign nationality is countless, director Chen Kaige is an American, Feng Xiaogang is Canadian; Hong Kong star Nicholas Tse is Canadian, Donnie Yen is an American. The funniest thing is that the “patriotic” blockbuster “Building the Party” movie has a lot of famous actors and actresses who were found to be “foreigners”.
Xiao Ruoyuan finally to the University of Hong Kong “brother” identity, advised the strict implementation of the “nationality law” sister Yip Lau Suk-yee, sometimes people can not be too serious, “serious, then we are all dead. “
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