..3..
for so long. That's the first thing that you have to worry about.
Then from the Chinese point of view, what they have to worry about
is to maintain for their own interests the position of Hong Kong
in international finance & trade because that it is very important
to them and they earn a lot of money that way. So it is in
everybody's interests that there should be some sensible settlement.
Interviewer: But haven't a large part of those four and half million
Chinese people come to Hong Kong because they don't like the
Communist Chinese regime in Peking? Aren't we saying that we are
willing to negotiate their future and hand them back to Communist
China?
Carrington:
I think it is generally recognised in Hong Kong the
realities of the lease and of the problems that 1997 brings
everybody knows that and it is equally recognised - and it has been
said on a number of occasions by the Chinese that the solution
they would contemplate would enable the sort of system that now
operates in Hong Kong to continue. It is very much in the
interests of the Chinese that it should continue because they earn
a very great deal of foreign exchange that way and it is a very
important outlet for them. I would have thought that there is the
possibility and the probability in the end of a solution which is
acceptable to everybody.
Interviewer: But why is it acceptable to negotiate the sovereignty
of British territory in this particular instance when it wasn't
acceptable to negotiate the sovereignty of British territory in
the South Atlantic - the Falkland Islands?
-
Carrington: If you look at the two situations they are rather
different. Anyway we were talking to the Argentinians there
was a proposal for leaseback which would have entailed the transfer
of sovereignty, but not of course in reality, over very many years. So there was no question of us not negotiating. The difficulty now
is that after what the Argentinians did last year in bad faith and
in a disgraceful fashion it is hardly likely that we can start
negotiating with them at the moment and I don't think it is
conceivable that we could. I think the situation in Hong Kong
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