4
IA
5
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Those who read the daily headlines in
the press, whether here or in London,
could be forgiven at times for missing
that wider picture.
- Sometimes the picture is painted of a
Hong Kong quaking in its boots, starting
at every sound, fearful to face the
future.
- I think it is worth casting one's mind
back to the Hong Kong of 1983 when I
first became Foreign Secretary.
At that
time the future contained only one
certainty: that under the lease more
than 90% of Hong Kong would revert to
China in 1997.
- It's not a picture which I readily
recognise, looking around me here.
We have made huge progress since then.
The Joint Declaration was hailed byn the
world's press as a major achievement.
Commentaries were bullish, and with
justification.
The agreement took Deng
Xiaoping's imaginative concept of two
systems within one country and gave it
detailed and practical expression.