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The following day, the HK Economic Journal said China and Britain would soon hold preparatory talks before they started the formal discussions on HK's future. Quoting reliable sources, the paper said the FCO had written to the Chinese Premier reiterating that China should not set any pre-requisites for the talks.
7.
PRESS LINES:
The Economic Journal in a leader on 16 May said the sixteen characters, "Regain Sovereignty, maintain prosperity, HK people to govern HK and systems to remain unchanged", promulgated by the Chinese Government, should not be taken as the outcome of the Sino- British talks. They were merely the wishes of the Chinese Government. The sixteen characters were full of fallacy. The claim of regaining sovereignty contradicted maintenance of prosperity, while HK people governing HK was no guarantee for all systems to remain unchanged. The paper believed that Beijing was well aware that the outcome of the discussions would be different from the 16 characters which were designed to please extreme leftists in the Government. On Britain's stance, the paper said silence did not mean Whitehall had changed its stand. While the British Government would continue to insist on the validity of the treaties, it would avoid causing embarassment to Beijing and might take an attitude of tacitly holding
firm to its stance.
Diverse views were expressed by five commentators in the "Readers' Forum” published in the HK Economic Journal on 15 May. A commentator said HK residents' apprehension of reversion of HK to China stemmed from the fact that they wanted to remain citizens in a free society. Another commentator said people who were resigned to the "HK people governing HK" proposition must have bad memories to have forgotten about the totalitarian rule of communist China. A third commentator, Mr. Tsin Sai-nin, of the HK Democratic Association, said confidence in HK should be built on the wishes of local residents. A fourth commentator called for a signature campaign to sound out the public on whether HK should be trusted to the United Nations. The fifth commentator supported the reversion of HK to China and said patriots wanted to see China united again.
The right-wing Hong Kong Times, in an editorial, argued that the Beijing Government, being a totalitarian regime, would not attach any importance to public opinion in Hong Kong. On the other hand, developments in the past two years had shown that the international community and Britain had given due weight to the wishes of Hong Kong people. Thus, local residents must put forward their views through various channels here, and to various countries overseas, in a bid to keep their future in their own hands.
8.
ENGLISH-LANGUAGE PRESS:
HK People elected_to_CPPCC: There was some reaction in the English-language press last Tuesday to the election of 46 local people to the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. The SCMP had the heading: "HK members 'a good sign'." Mr. Deacon Chiu said he did not envisage any change in news and programme policy (he owns Asia Television); he said as a Chinese he would like to contribute to China's modernisation, but he also hoped to pass on his views on the 1997 issue. Dr. C.T. Huang of Lingnan College said the inclusion of HK people from various backgrounds showed that the
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