7th Notember, 1984
The Commissioner Assessment Office PO Box 9000 G PO Hong Kong.
Sir,
603 Kam Ching Building
54 Jaffe Rood
1
IN HO
TIG IN A POKE
CR
PORK IN THE BARREL
To understand the Joint Declaration charade and the circumvoluted logic of its helter-skelter bent authors, it is necessary to educe some reasonable ass- uptions from the information, fact and fiction, bold assurances and bolder guarantees proffered over the last two years to the people of Hong Kong.
Through this may prove an exercise in futility, the Chinese proverb:
He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a ques- 'tion remains a fool forever'
is an encouragement to proceed.
1. To start with we can assume that both Great Pritain's and China's main cancer is to maintain STABILITY and PROSPERITY in Hong Kong.
This is a fair assumption, because it IS in the interest of both parties that Hy Kong should rewash stable and, especially, prosperous. To this end, it is qu reasonable to coct that both parties will make some concessions and even a few sacrifices, for the all-mighty dollar is the most potent anaesthetic known to assuage an uneasy conscience, and mute a rebellious one. Like Circe it has, moreover, the power to turn men into snivelling swine.
2. In this respect at least, we can assume that both parties are sincere and honest.
2. It follows, then (since an aggressive act, of any kind, would not exactly be conducive to maintaining stability, and would cause prosperity to evaporate), that China will not resort to any form of cuercion or constraint to drive home some more convucing armurents than were rialled at the conference table, such as the use of:
- armed forces (this perspective can also be rejected because it would give the lie to China's moral indignation at the inmorality of the 'unequal' treaties, and more importantly, because it would jeopardize its claim to Taiwan, and incur economic sanctions, at least temporarily until the outrage felt by the conscien-
co of the world has cuboidad)