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 civil war, until it was revised in 2000 (see Nationality law of Taiwan for more details). From the establishment of the Communist regime on 1 October 1949 to 9 September 1980, China had no statutory nationality law except for the Sino-Indonesian Dual Nationality Treaty adopted in 1955, which was a bilateral treaty between China and Indonesia's Sukarno government instead of a statutory law. From the period between 1949 and 1955, China recognized dual nationality as did Taiwan, therefore the Treaty was the first regulation in Chinese history to ban dual nationality between China and other countries. On 10 September 1980,