Citizenship matters were complicated by the fact that British nationality law treated those born in :Hong Kong as British subjects (although they did not enjoy full rights and citizenship), while the People's Republic of China did not recognise Hong Kongers with Chinese ancestry as British. The main legal rationale for the Chinese position was that recognising these people as British could be seen as tacit acceptance of a series of treaties which China considers "unequal" – including the ones which ceded the Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Peninsula and the land between the Kowloon Peninsula and the Sham Chun River and neighbouring islands (i.e. the New Territories) to the UK. The main political reason was to prevent the vast majority of Hong Kong residents from having any recourse to British assistance (e.g. by claiming consular assistance or protection under an external treaty) after the handover of Hong Kong.