Nationality law of the People's Republic of China territory "before or after" their transfer of sovereignty to China are regarded as "born in China". Those who are of ethnic Chinese origin are Chinese nationals before and after the handovers. Having said that, people born in Hong Kong or Macao in the years before handover, were usually given British nationality (mostly British Dependent Territories Citizenship) and full Portuguese citizenship, based on British and Portuguese laws. For Hong Kong residents, the "Interpretation" of the Nationality Law was adopted at the Nineteenth Session of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People's Congress on May 15, 1996, a year prior to
Nationality law of the People's Republic of China China's current and only statutory nationality law went into effect. The law itself, however, has been criticized for being outdated as many countries have amended their nationality laws to allow dual nationality since the 1990s, and the opinions on whether China should fully permit dual nationality has constantly resulted in heated debates. It is worth-noting that dual nationality is still possible under the current nationality law (see "Dual nationality" below). Chinese nationality law operates mainly on the basis of "jus sanguinis" ("right of blood"), although a different type of "jus soli" ("right of the soil", or birthright nationality) applies to