Ming Pao Editorial : May 8, 1979
Headline: Eventually (China) touches on the year 1997
When meeting a group of French correspondents, China's
Assistant Foreign Minister, Mr. Song Zhiguang talked about
the question of both Hong Kong and Macau. The French correspondents asked
him about the future of Hong Kong and Macau. Mr. Song said, there is no
pressing need for China to settle these questions in the immediate future.
But Hong Kong residents would surely pay much attention to several points
in his talk.
"A solution to these problems will come later. There are still 18 more years before Hong Kong's lease (that is North Kowloon, the New Territories and the out-lying islands) expires in 1997.
We have 18 years
to settle the problem and we are not in a hurry," he said.
Not long ago
"The British government is attending to the matter.
the Governor of Hong Kong visited China. We told him that Hong Kong was
part of Chinese territory and at the expiration of the lease we would settle
the problem in an adequate manner. The problem of investments is also worrying Hong Kong industrialists, especially where the New Territories are
concerned. They have fears and some have even thought about cancelling
certain major investments," Mr. Song said. He said that China had reassured
the industrialists by telling them that if they carried out their investments
they would suffer no losses.
"The Soviet Union has been doing its utmost to sow discord and is surprised that China has not taken back Hong Kong and Macau. But we believe
this (Hong Kong and Macau problem) to be only a minor problem," he said.
Although the rank of Mr. Song in China's hierachy is not extremely
high, he always acts as a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, that means
he is the official spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
His message to the French correspondents should then be taken as
China's formal expression of its attitude.
It is worth