British Official Defends Hong Kong Citizenship Plan

Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd has defended the government’s plan to give full British citizenship to up to 50,000 professionals and their families--about 225,000 people in all from Hong Kong.

Hurd said in the Sunday Express that the move was necessary to persuade professionals essential for Hong Kong’s prosperity not to emigrate before the British colony reverts to Chinese rule in 1997.

Confidence in Hong Kong has plummeted since the Chinese army brutally repressed pro-democracy protesters in Beijing in June.

Hurd said that assurances for the colony are needed because many people have already left. “The lifeblood of Hong Kong is being drained away.”

Officials said the package was designed to give Hong Kong citizens most likely to emigrate an “insurance policy” of right of abode in Britain if needed after 1997, thus encouraging them to stay in the colony.

Hong Kong legislators have described the British government’s proposal as potentially divisive and pledged to fight for the rights of all 3.25 million British passport-holders in the colony.