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a system of government the authority for which is firmly rooted in Hong Kong" will certainly be retained in the Green Paper on political reforms to be published in 1987" and "this objective is compatible with
the reversion of Hong Kong's sovereignty to China". Mr Scott also
considered that should problems arise from the political reforms, the
Chinese and British Government's will discuss the matter but not "through
the Joint Liaison Group".
It is obvious that the views of Mr Williams, Mr Thomas and
Mr Scott follow the same line. They think that there are loopholes in
the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which can be taken advantage of. Firstly, the Joint Declaration stipulates that Hong Kong will be ruled by the U.K. up to 1997. Therefore, it is up to the British government to decide that changes are to be made to Hong Kong's government structure, without having to consult Beijing. Secondly, it is clearly stipulated in the Joint Declaration that there will be no change for fifty years. Even if Britain makes some changes in (Hong Kong's) political system, China will
have to accept them as a "fait accompli".
Thirdly, what China
fears most is that Hong Kong's prosperity and stability cannot be sustained. Beijing will give in if there is a "public opinion war", just as it did during the Sino-British negotiations. Therefore, at a time when the Basic Law is being drafted by China, they try to lay down the mode of Hong Kong's future political system by developing a representative government so as to restrain the Basic Law and force it to fall in line with the representative government. What the representative government does, the Basic Law will have to follow. Otherwise, there will be obstacles and uncertainties and China
will have to take the blame for them.
Can China then expresses its opinions on the representative
Once China government? According to their logic, Chine cannot do so. says a word on the subject, it will be taken as intervention in the local administration and the Hong Kong government will become a "lame duck". Then a decline in Hong Kong's prosperity will not be their concern. order not to make the Hong Kong government a lame duck, China will have to refrain from commenting on the representative system.
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