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Our monetary and fiscal systems are to be separate
from China's.
No taxes are to be paid to China.
Hong Kong's economy is to be run by Hong Kong.
Hong Kong will have, just as now, full autonomy in
the conduct of all its external relations except
foreign affairs and defence.
And so on.
In other words, the Joint Declaration recognises the need
to insulate our different systems one from the other while
accommodating the change of sovereignty.
Thus
It recognises also the need for continuity.
the Government, the administration and its civil servants,
are to continue in place. There will be no British
Governor.
But there will be no Governor from Peking
either. It is to be a government of Hong Kong by Hong Kong
people. The bright young people you will see in the civil
service today are those that will run Hong Kong in the
future. The process of democratic reform, which had begun
before the Joint Declaration was signed, is to continue.