China Assails British Hong Kong Offer

China denounced as “unacceptable” Saturday a British law granting passports and the right of abode in Britain to 50,000 key Hong Kong Chinese families and said it will not recognize the “erroneous action.”

China’s vow of non-recognition appeared designed to undermine a key aim of the British Nationality Act, passed by the Parliament last week as a safety valve to give some key Hong Kong residents the confidence to stay in the territory after the colony reverts to Chinese rule in 1997.

Beijing accused Britain of having “gone so far as to break its solemn commitment” to the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration outlining the British colony’s July 1, 1997, handover to China. It threatened unspecified measures in retaliation.

The Nationality Act promises British passports and right of abode in Britain to 50,000 leaders in Hong Kong business, government and cultural circles, allowing them to emigrate if Hong Kong’s stability deteriorates as the Chinese takeover nears.

British lawmakers, worried about a huge influx of Hong Kong Chinese, clearly had hoped British citizenship would keep program participants in Hong Kong beyond 1997.