TRANSCRIPT B: SELECT COMMITTEE ON HONG KONG
12 JUNE 1989
MR. TED ROWLANDS (CONTD) :
No-one envisages any Hong Kong Government acking the
un to the streets but reading Chinese military to come that in conjunction with Article 18 about it being possible for the Chinese Authorities to declare turmoil and impose martial law,
a state of
are we being nightmarish
in believing that this combination of draft clauses in the Joint Declaration does suggest a role for the Chinese military in Hong Kong after 1997?
SIR DAVID WILSON :
The Joint Declaration allows for the stationing in the Hong Kong SAR of Chinese furces if they wish to do 80. It does not say they have got to, but it allow for it if
they wish to do so.
I would draw a distinction myself between Articles 14 and 18 of the Draft Basic Law and the key distinction is that Article 14 is the Hong Kong SAR Government
requesting help
-
Article 18, as at present drafted,
could
create a situation in which it was the Central Government, without necessarily the agreement of the SAR Government, saying that a state of turmoil existed and various things
followed from that.
I think the provision that things are done at the request of the SAR Government is one which is very important and you cannot rule out that an SAR Government might want to seek assistance in times of natural disaster or various other problems that any government might face.