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Hong Kong
so away with egalitarianism in distribution"
a decision that I dare say will be more welcome on the Conservative side of the House than on ours. The Prime Minister of China said that there are two major issues that must receive special attention restructuring the economic set-up and opening the Chinese economy to the outside world.
There is growing evidence that the economic success of Chinese communities, not only in Hong Kong but in Singapore, have stimulated interest and admiration in Peking. Special economic zones, which are multiplying on China's frontiers, not least the one just across the border in Guangdong, are seen by the Chinese Government as laboratories for testing the possibility of developing similar policies for China itself. The absorption of Hong Kong into China may be seen as giving this new trend a major boost.
However, the one area where precise commitments from Peking seem to be very important and most feasible concerns Hong Kong's openness to the outside world, on which its future as a financial trading centre must depend. This implies something that I do not think the Foreign Secretary mentioned, the possibility of continuing to enjoy the advantages of being members of GATT and the multi- fibre agreement-I am sorry if I misunderstood the Foreign Secretary, he seems now to be indicating assent
and, what I know he mentioned, continuing convertibility of the Hong Kong dollar. Beyond that, the closer the Foreign Secretary can get to automony as he defined it to us this afternoon, the more we shall all welcome it.
The most difficult problem facing Britain and the Government is outside the talks themselves. It is how to satisfy themselves and Parliament that an ultimate agreement is consistent with the interests and aspirations of the people of Hong Kong when that people does not yet fully enjoy representative institutions and when many of those who have been elected to some of the bodies that have elected members have been elected on very low
votes.
We must avoid a referendum. Our experience of the referenda on Scotland and on the European Community suggests that a referendum is a most unsuitable means of consulting a people on major constitutional change. [Interruption.] People could change their minds on this issue as quickly as they did on the European Community. That happens even in an advanced parliamentary democracy. A referendum would be wholly inappropriate in Hong Kong. The sort of political campaign that a referendum would require, if it were to be meaningful, would risk setting the Communists and the supporters of the Kuomintang against one another in a way that could destroy the very confidence without which Hong Kong cannot survive either under British jurisdiction or under the Chinese.
The trouble is that it is impossible to produce effective representative institutions for testing Hong Kong opinion in the few months still available when we have refused to do so during the past 150 years. In any case, the real problem of democratising Hong Kong lies in making the bureaucracies more accountable to the people rather than producing a parliamentary democracy on the Westminster model, which has worked in few places that do not have
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Anglo-Saxon political traditions and has not worked anywhere in countries having a majority of Chinese in their population.
If Britain can secure the necessary understanding from Peking in the coming months, the maintenance of confidence during the 13 years that follow until 1997, such as the development of more representative institutions, must depend primarily on the people of Hong Kong. I confess that I am uneasy about the length of the transition period because British authority in Hong Kong will dwindle very rapidly once the agreement is ratified and the process of democratisation gets under way. In the main, it will be for the people of Hong Kong to conduct the dialogue with Peking from that time on. If the final date for relinquishing sovereignty and responsibility is brought forward by agreement between the people of Hong Kong and the Government of Peking, so much the better, because it is difficult to exercise responsibility without possessing authority.
During this period, we know that some of the fat cats in Hong Kong may scuttle away. Jardine Matheson has already done so, but no one who remembers Mr. Keswick's evidence some years ago at the tribunal when he said, "It may be derogatory to sterling, but it makes good sense to me," has ever had much faith in the devotion of Jardine Matheson to any cause, except its view of its profitability.
The prosperity of Hong Kong does not and will not depend upon a few individuals. Vitality, enterprise and financial skills are so widely spread among the Chinese people that there will be five people to take the place of every one person who goes. In the difficult months ahead we must cling to the sensible summation of the situation in an article in the South China Morning Post nine days after the Foreign Secretary's press conference, when the immediate impact had begun to die away. The article stated:
"However, if China was prepared to accept Hongkong for 143 tumultuous years despite massive changes, why should it not also honour an international agreement covering the next 50 years?
Let us acknowledge it had to come to an end one day. And What we have to be certain about in making this transition is not to bemoan our fate and stand aloof from change, but to make sure that the Hongkong spirit continues regardless of what flag flies." It is in the Government's power in their talks with the Chinese Government to ensure that the Hong Kong spirit survives as predicted in that editorial.
8.4 pm
Mr. Edward Heath (Old Bexley and Sidcup): I shall in some ways echo the last words of the right hon. Member for Leeds, East (Mr. Healey). I reaffirm my complete confidence that the people of Hong Kong are fully capable of handling the situation that lies in front of them during the rest of this century and for a long time thereafter. Their achievements are remarkable, even though many of them believe that they should have had greater opportunities from the British administration. Any island with such a record cannot fail to succeed in the rest of this century.
I congratulate my right hon. and learned Friend the Foreign Secretary on the frankness with which he stated the real position. He did so in Hong Kong after his talks in Peking, and he has today again stated the position. The position is one that some of us have recognised for a long time. We have recognised that the treaty on the new territories expires in 1997 and that the treaty of Nanking of 1842 could not survive that. Certainly, Hong Kong as
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