Hong Kong: China says it will not recognise UK overseas passports

Ambassador's warning comes in response to UK's special visa offer to Hong Kong citizens

China will not recognise the British national (overseas) passport as a legal travel document, raising the prospect that the 3 million Hong Kong citizens eligible for the passport will be banned from leaving Hong Kong by the Chinese government.

The warning was made at a press conference by the Chinese ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, in which he also warned it was hard to imagine a global Britain that bypassed or excluded China. Decoupling from China would mean decoupling from growth and the future, he suggested.