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10. The agreement, as the Prime Minister had pointed out, fully conformed with the interests of the entire Chinese people, including the compatriots of Hong Kong, as well as with the interests of the British people. On behalf of the Chinese Government, Premier Zhao expressed his appreciation and thanks to the Prime Minister for the vision and states- manship which she had displayed and which had so signally contributed to the successful conclusion of the agreement. He also expressed his thanks to Sir Geoffrey Howe who had visited China at two crucial moments during the talks, giving fresh impetus to them on each occasion. Credit should also be given too to the two government delegations, headed respectively by Wu Xueqian and Sir Geoffrey Howe.
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11. Now the task was to implement the agreement in every respect. China was ready to do so. Premier Zhao was sure that Britain was also ready to do so. The concept of "one country, two systems" was a policy upon which the Chinese Government had settled after very careful consideration. was not a measure of expediency. Recently the Sixth National People's Congress (NPC) had held the 8th session of its Standing Committee which, on 14 November, had endorsed the agreement. It had at the same time decided that, after the formal signing, the agreement would be submitted to the Third Plenary Session of the NPC which would be held in the first half of 1985. was a tradition of the Chinese nation to act in good faith. China always lived up to her international commitments. Even during the years of domestic turmoil she had lived up to them She had a good historical record in this respect. The agree- ment reached on Hong Kong was such a good agreement that noone wanted to alter or change it. The Chinese people supported it, the British people supported it, and so did the people of Hong Kong. The agreement had also received a very positive response from the international community. That said, there were a hand- ful of people in the world who harboured doubts about it. They feared there might be some change in the policies now pursued by the Chinese Government. There were no grounds for such doubts. They were unnecessary. China would prove her words. by her deeds.
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Now a transitional period of 12 years lay ahead. China was concerned about this period. If everything passed smoothly and if the Hong Kong economy prospered, a solid foundation would be laid for the 50 years after 1997. It was the shared desire of China and Britain to maintain the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong during the transitional period in order to ensure a smooth transfer of Government in 1997. However, sometimes there could be a gap between a subjective wish, and an objective reality. Measures were therefore called for to ensure that the subjective wish would translate into the objective reality. As a Chinese proverb put it: "If preparations are made, troubles may be averted. Without preparations there will be troubles". In the past, on a number of occasions, the Chinese had let their British friends know some of their worries about the possibility of disturbances during the transitional period. They hoped the
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