Select Committee on Foreign Affairs Memoranda


Memorandum submitted by Foreign and Commonwealth Office (China)

IX  CONSULAR SERVICES

  126.  The number of British visitors to China, and hence the demand for consular services, is steadily increasing. According to Chinese immigration figures, 240,000 British citizens entered China in 1999, an increase of over 300 per cent on the 1996 figure. Beijing's consular district alone has 1,750 registered British citizens—although we believe there are many others who have not registered.

  127.  We offer the full range of consular services in China: assistance to those who have been robbed or lost their passports, processing passport applications and consular birth registrations, issuing Certificates of No Impediment, fielding general nationality enquiries etc, and less pleasant tasks such as repatriating the bodies of any British nationals who die in China. Our posts in China operate a network of consular wardens, who are usually well known members of the British community and who provide a link between our posts and the community in times of crisis or natural disaster.


 
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