category of questions resulting from the series of unequal treaties left over by history, treaties which the imperialists imposed on China. Hong Kong and Macau are part of Chinese territory occupied by the British and Portuguese authorities. The settlement of the questions of Hong Kong and Macau is entirely within China's sovereign right and does not at all fall under the ordinary category of "colonial Territories". Consequently, they should not be included in the list of colonial Territories covered by the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. With regard to the questions of Hong Kong and Macau, the Chinese Government has consistently held that they should be settled in an appropriate way when conditions are ripe. The United Nations has no right to discuss these questions. For the above reasons, the Chinese delegation is opposed to including Hong Kong and Macau in the list of colonial Territories covered by the Declaration and requests that the erroneous wording that Hong Kong and Macau fall under the category of so-called "colonial Territories" be immediately removed from the documents of the Special Committee and all other United Nations documents.
(Signed) Huang Hua
Permanent Representative of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations.
FOOTNOTES
1. Editorial in the People's Daily (Renmin Ribao), 8 March 1963; in English in Peking Review,
March 15, 1963.
2. Article signed "Commentator" (signifying an authoritative statement), People's Daily 20 August 1967; in English in New China News Agency, Peking, 20 August 1967. Text here as given in Jerome Alan Cohen and Hungdah Chiu, People's China and International Law; A Documentary Study (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1974), Vol. 1, pp. 382-3. 3. United Nations document A/AC.109/396. The full name of this Committee is: The Special
Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. This Committee is usually referred to as the Special Committee of 24 or, somewhat misleadingly, as the Committee on Decolonisation.
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