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dare to do so. Premier Zhao Ziyang said that a few investors were putting money elsewhere, but not many; he repeated that he believed that if investors got benefits in Hong Kong, they would stay there.
Referring to the Prime Minister's suggestion that the British and Chinese Governments should maintain contact on this issue after the Prime Minister's visit, Premier Zhao Ziyang said that the Chinese Government had the same wish that both sides should continue discussions. These discussions should cover the question of recovery of sovereignty, and, on this premise, of how to maintain the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong. With regard to the Prime Minister's proposal of a public statement, Premier Zhao Ziyang suggested that she should discuss this with Vice Chairman Deng Xiaoping tomorrow.
(i
The Prime Minister, responding to Premier Zhao Ziyang's statement, said that the British Government understood the Chinese Government's position on sovereignty. It was for that reason that the British Government had not for the last 10 years reported Hong Kong to the United Nations under the Colonial Sections of the UN Charter. Hong Kong was the only dependency which the British Government had omitted in this way. The British Government also agreed that by 1997 the legal basis for the British Administration of the new territories would end: the British
Government honoured its agreements and accepted that this was the legal position. By the same token, the legal basis for British retention of Hong Kong and Kowloon would continue as a matter of international law. She understood that the Chinese Government
wished this Treaty to be abrogated, but the Chinese Government had to recognise that abrogation would have to be achieved through a law passed by the British Parliament. The point which would be made was that, if the Chinese Government
abrogated one agreement valid at international law, what assurance could there be that they would keep any other agreement. The British Government therefore preferred not to abrogate agreements, but to reach new ones which superseded them.
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