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.
|
