that the whole of Hong Kong is Chinese territory. Their
longstanding position was that the treaties relating to
Hong Kong were unequal ones left over from history; that
the question should be settled peacefully through
negotiation when the time was ripe; and that pending a
settlement the status quo should be maintained. They
made it clear that the settlement of the question of Hong
Kong was a matter of China's sovereign right.
3. The fact that the New Territories are subject by
treaty to a lease with a fixed expiry date - 30 June 1997
and would thus revert to China on that date, meant
that the British Government would inevitably have to
reach an agreement with the Chinese Government about Hong
Kong's future. The rest of Hong Kong would not be viable
without the New Territories, which contain most of the
territory's agriculture and industry and its contaijner
port at Kwai Chung. Moreover, by the late 1970s, as the
remaining period of the lease on the New Territories
continued to shorten, concern about Hong Kong's future,
both locally and amongst foreign investors, began to
grow. In particular, the inability of the Hong Kong
Government to grant new individual land leases in the New
Territories extending beyond 1997 would eventually
discourage new investment and undermine confidence.
Simply to have ignored the 1997 deadline was not
option:
that would have led to a steady erosion of
confidence or possibly a sudden panic as the reality of
Hong Kong's uncertain future became closer and clearer.