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considerations have been important to China for many years and
will continue to be important as China continues its ambitious
programme of developing its potentially vast economy. They
depend now, as they will after 1997, on Hong Kong retaining a
separate economic and financial system, not on the absorption
of the Hong Kong economy in that of China as a whole. They are
thus part of the foundation of the "one country, two systems"
concept and part of its guarantee.
As a
The major free-market economies of the world all have
an interest in seeing that Hong Kong's future is secured.
centre of trading and communications, an entrepot for the
Asia-Pacific region and an international financial centre, Hong
Kong is an important part of the capitalist community and a
base for many companies and banks doing business in the
region. These are not merely British interests, but Western
interests. The American stake in Hong Kong, for example, is
About 14,000 Americans live in Hong Kong. The
American Chamber of Commerce estimated in February this year
that there were over 900 American firms in Hong Kong with a
total investment of over US$6 billion. The US Consul-General
in Hong Kong recently described Hong Kong's importance to the
United States as based "not only on commercial ties but also
shared values". From free trade (and no market is freer than
Hong Kong's) to individual rights and freedoms, these are
values which it is very much in the Western interest to
very large.
preserve.