political reforms would not be a subject for discussion in the
Sino-British Joint Liaison Group.
However, British resolve to oversee political reforms
in Hong Kong did not last long. On 21st November 1985, Mr. Xu
Jiatun, the director of the New China News Agency in Hong Kong,
gave his first press conference, during which he made a thinly
veiled accusation that Britain had violated the Agreement by
attempting to introduce political reforms in Hong Kong.
Despite
the clear language of the Agreement, reserving to the post-1991
period any discussion of matters involving the transition, China
demanded that political reforms be discussed at the next Joint
Liaison Group meeting, then scheduled to take place the following
week. The British side, after initial resistance, complied.
Since then, senior Chinese officials have repeatedly
warned Britain not to institute major political changes in Hong
Kong until after the promulgation of the Basic Law in 1990, and
specifically opposed the introduction of direct elections in
1988.
Britain's reluctance to honour its commitments to Hong
Kong is traceable directly to such Chinese pressure. Indeed, as
Lord Glenarthur's letter suggests, Britain has now been reduced
to resorting to technicalities to show that she has not reneged
on promises made to the people of a dependent territory, people
who are, in a very real sense, dependent on Britain to give them
indispensable institutions with which to practise self-
the
administration.
Recently, in order
introduction of direct elections,
15
the
to justify postponing
some people have been saying
+