[Grammar] China-born, Chinese-born

I prefer the adjectival version.

Only the adjectival form is correct, IMO.

Compare British-born/Britain-born; Welsh-born/Wales-born; Danish-born/Denmark-born.

Only the first of each pair sound right to me.

I suppose it depends on whether that person has the nationality of the country they were born in. If someone, say, of American nationality happened to have a baby while in Britain, that child would be Britain-born but not British-born.

Having said that, I find "Britain-born" unnatural!

The problem is that "Chinese" is ambiguous. Does "Chinese-born" mean "born in China" or "ethnically Chinese"?

It would be odd indeed to describe a European born in China as Chinese-born.

Would he not have Chinese nationality as well as British?

I'm not familiar with Chinese nationality laws but that's certainly not the case in every country.

In the past, it was true that a child born in the UK was automatically entitled to British citizenship. Unfortunately, that fact led to a problem with heavily pregnant women from some other parts of the world flying to the UK with the express intention of giving birth here. That would then lead, later, to the child's parents, grandparents and sometimes extended family applying for residency in the UK on the basis of that child being British. That loophole has been closed. Now, if a child is born in the UK, it is only entitled to British citizenship if at least one of its parents is also British or holds settled status in the UK.

That's why a child born here isn't necessarily "British-born".

Rover_KE said:

Would he not have Chinese nationality as well as British?

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The Chinese government do not grant citizenship easily and or allow dual citizenship. I don't think children of expatriates who are born in the country are granted citizenship.
I have a friend, a Chinese Malaysian, who has stayed in the country for decades and owns a factory there but has not been granted permanent residenceship.

Rover_KE said:

Only the adjectival form is correct, IMO.

Compare British-born/Britain-born; Welsh-born/Wales-born; Danish-born/Denmark-born.

Only the first of each pair sound right to me.

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Wales is not an independent country, so no one can have Welsh citizenship. Is my understanding correct?

You are correct that Welsh is not a nationality. That doesn't mean that someone can't describe themselves as Welsh and someone born in Wales might well describe themselves as "Welsh-born". It's just not a legal term.

emsr2d2 said:

You are correct that Welsh is not a nationality.

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While I agree that Welsh is not a citizenship, it is a nationality.

http://projectbritain.com/nationality.htm

Hmm, I see their point but when you get into the legal terminology of it, it's not quite so clear cut. If you have to fill in your nationality on a form in the UK, you would have to put British (or whatever passport you hold), no matter how Welsh you feel.

The term is confusing because it has a different meaning in different countries. When I worked at an airport, I dealt with a lot of paperwork on which people had to fill in a box marked "Nationality". Most Brits knew to write "British" (although a few, who were probably simply trying to make a point, wrote "Scottish" or "Welsh" etc). However, when holders of US passports came to that box, they would fill in all sorts of things - Irish, Caucasian, Afro-American, Hispanic, and plenty of other things. They were, in effect, talking about their ancestry. For holders of American passports, that box could only contain two possible answers: USA or American.

I believe such forms (e.g. the ones at airports) should say "citizenship" and not "nationality". They incorrectly use those two words interchangeably.

The Welsh people even have their own language, as do the Scottish, Irish and Cornish people.

I'm not disputing that Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are nations, nor that there are languages other than English that qualify as languages native to the UK. They are nations within the United Kingdom. However, as you can see HERE, British citizenship is just one type of British nationality. The umbrella term is "nationality". Had there been space, it might have been more helpful for that airport form to read "What passport(s) do you hold?" That would not be open to misinterpretation.

This is UK-specific, and doesn't apply to much of the rest of the world, though. We struggle to agree among ourselves what we are. ;-)

We like to be different! ;-)

Tdol said:

This is UK-specific, and doesn't apply to much of the rest of the world

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How about the Basque and Catalan nationalities in Spain?

teechar said:

How about the Basque and Catalan nationalities in Spain?

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The same thing applies, if you're discussing it in British English. You can't have a Basque or Catalan passport, therefore they don't fall under the legal term "nationality". Legally, they're Spanish (if, of course, they hold or are entitled to a Spanish passport).

The Spanish constitution recognizes them as nationalities.