Why do the majority of Asians in Hong Kong hold a British passport?

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British National (Overseas), commonly known as BN(O), is one of the major classes of British nationality under British nationality law. Holders of this nationality are Commonwealth citizens, but not British citizens. They are not granted right of abode of anywhere, including the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, through their British National (Overseas) status. The creation of the class of British National (Overseas) was a response to the question of the future prospect of Hong Kong back in 1980s, and therefore the nationality was specially "tailor-made" for the Hong Kong residents with British Dependent Territories citizen status by virtue of their connection with Hong Kong, and to let them retain an appropriate relationship with the United Kingdom after the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China in 1997. From 1 July 1987 to 1997, around 3.4 million of British Dependent Territories citizens of Hong Kong, who were mainly ethnic Chinese, successfully gained British National (Overseas) status by registration. Hong Kong's British Dependent Territories citizenship then ceased to exist after 30 June 1997. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_National_(Overseas) Jan 08 09, 7:25 PM