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It's not a picture which I readily recognise, looking around me here.
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.
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.
So where are we four years on? Some say that after the Joint Declaration Britain washed its hands of Hong Kong. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have upheld and will uphold our obligations to Hong Kong. Our commitment to Hong Kong and its future is firm and unshakeable.
The Joint Declaration remains as strong a foundation for the future as ever. In the meantime discussions with the Chinese have continued intensively in the Joint Liaison Group and in the many other contacts we have with them. Some notable achievements have already been registered:
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agreement on Hong Kong's separate membership of GATT agreement on Hong Kong's continued participation in other international organisations
wide-ranging agreements on travel documents
on air services
- on civil service pensions.
The same
In every case we secured what Hong Kong needed. is true in the Land Commission. And this very practical and necessary work goes on.
The Joint Liaison Group has not interfered in the administration of Hong Kong, nor will it do so. It is not a shadow government. It is a means of consultation and cooperation in the interests of Hong Kong and its people.
I think the area where most controversy has arisen is that of constitutional reform. That is not surprising: there are deeply and sincerely held views on this subject in this community as in any other and they differ. clash of such views in debate is bound to produce
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