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}
The British authority cannot expect China to recognise the Treaty of Nanking, and to agree that HK is perpetually ceded to Britain. It cannot expect the Peking authority to sign a new agreement to lease the New Territories and New Kowloon for a further 99 years from 1997. It cannot expect China to recognise forever that HK is Britain's colony.
HK residents cannot expect HK to be independent like Singapore, to be a politically neutral and wholly economic zone like Switzerland, and have the joint guarantee of Britain and China that its status quo will stay forever
HK's status quo will surely change one day and but if there is 15 years notice beforehand, everything will change in good order and with the least damage.
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