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5.
The second is more difficult to answer satisfactorily. "Rendition" of offenders between Hong Kong and China is an extremely sensitive subject. At present no arrangements exist. By 1997, at latest, it is only realistic to expect that the Chinese will want to have some means of obtaining the return of an offender to the courts of the mainland if he fled to Hong Kong after committing an offence (and vice-versa). The incompatibility of the legal systems and penal codes of Hong Kong and China will make satisfactory arrangements difficult to achieve. Public opinion in Hong Kong with justification, very suspicious of the Chinese system of justice, and will be anxious that any arrangements should contain safeguards no less extensive than those which apply at present for the return of fugitives between Hong Kong and other jurisdictions.
6.
is,
The Chinese accept that arrangements will have to be made,
They but as yet it is far from clear what they might have in mind. have no practical experience of extradition arrangements and their
We are therefore thinking is probably at a very preliminary stage. trying to influence it by introducing the subject of extradition to the Joint Liaison Group. We have argued that Hong Kong, as a major international trading and financial centre, will need extradition arrangements in place after 1997 and have proposed that the best way of achieving this will be for Hong Kong to be authorised to conclude its own extradition treaties before 1997, based on existing arrangements under UK treaties, capable of remaining in force after
Our strategy is to attempt to get the Chinese to agree that such arrangements should be established in respect of third countries so as to invoke them as precedents for arrangements between Hong Kong and the mainland.
1997.
7.
We
This is a delicate exercise and our ability to influence what is, ultimately, an internal aspect of Chinese post-1997
The Chinese have so far arrangements may prove to be limited. reacted cautiously to our proposals as regards third countries. have yet to get into a substantive exchange with them and we have as yet made no specific proposals as regards the return of offenders to
the mainland.
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