Other than closely watching the pro-establishment camp stabbing the back of Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s, another issue that has attracted the attention of the public was that some pro-establishment personnel and media said that Beijing is looking into resolving the problem of dual nationality of Hong Kong BNO holders. This would clearly be a “countermeasure” aimed at the British government’s proposal of the BNO 5+1 immigration scheme. However, upon reading those related news reports, some legal professionals have not quite understood the logic within. It is because Beijing has always regarded Hong Kong citizens holding foreign nationalities as Chinese citizens, not to mention Hong Kong citizens holding BNOs. There is basically no dual nationality problem. If Beijing is to strictly ban dual nationality or BNO, “I’m afraid that the ones to panic are not the democrats, but a group of Beijing-friendly businessmen, professionals, and civil servants.”

That legal professional said that Beijing’s nationality law has never recognized dual nationality, unless one, after obtaining a foreign nationality, voluntarily apply for renunciation of Chinese nationality and is approved, “Otherwise, no matter how many passports you hold, you are a Chinese citizen and do not have consular protection rights.” He also cited the case of Simon Cheng, a former staff member of the British Consulate General in Hong Kong, detained by the public security administration in Shenzhen as an example. At the time, Cheng had a BNO and the British Consulate made representations to the Chinese side. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang had stated clearly at a press conference at the time that Cheng was a Hong Kong Chinese citizen, that the case was entirely an internal affair of China. “As one can see, even with a BNO, Beijing will only see Chinese nationality, so there is absolutely no problem of dual nationality with BNO.”

As for being a “countermeasure” against the BNO 5+1 immigration program, that legal person laughed and said that the British government has long stated that even if one has no BNO on hand, as long as the person had once applied for a BNO, it can be reapplied once arrived in the U.K., “that is to say, even if you destroy your BNO passport, unless you are forbidden from leaving the country to go to the U.K., you can still apply for the BNO 5+1 Visa the same way!”

On the contrary, he believes that if Beijing really wants to handle the dual nationality issue of Hongkongers, the most affected group would be the foreign nationality holders within the business and professional sectors, as well as civil servants. “Is the first step to cancel the several functional constituencies in the LegCo which allow for foreigners to hold the positions of legislators?” Moreover, many in business and professional sectors hold foreign passports, “Do you think they would much rather give up their U.S. and Canadian passports, or would they rather run away?”

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