HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL -1 March 1990
香港立法局————————一九九○年三月一日
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What we have been given, and what the British Government has agreed to, is a pale shadow of what is needed to guarantee our future vigour and vitality and to ensure the support of the population of Hong Kong. We deserved better from the Mother of Democracy.
I cannot level the same criticism against China. That great country has never enjoyed democratic freedom nor do its leaders seem to understand the vital contribution that democratic freedom could and will make to the success of Hong Kong's economic and social development and to the confidence so important to its continual regeneration. They appear to expect that what was good enough for Britain should be good enough for China; that successful colonial Hong Kong should become a successful special administrative region of China without any great change in the system of government.
Nothing could be farther from reality. The British track record in administering Hong Kong has been benign and non-interventionist in character. Hong Kong has been encouraged to develop without serious interference from Britain and certainly without overt intervention. We have prospered mightily.
In contrast China has had almost continual political and economic upheavals and uncertainty during the last 50 years. The Chinese Government has made a brave attempt to change their economic system during the last 12 years and this has indicated very clearly that there is great potential for further liberalization and alignment with market forces. But during the same time, the Chinese Government has not recognized the need for corresponding change to the political system or even to accept moderate political change. Economic and political change are interdependent. One cannot succeed without the other.
It is also true to say that everywhere in the world people have been allowed to elect their government. Moderates and those believing in democracy have emerged. Democratic freedom has been the linchpin of economic growth and
success.
It is clear that Hong Kong people have little faith in the Chinese political and economic systems. That is why so many Chinese people have poured into Hong Kong during the last 50 years and why we have had to limit further entries.
It is also, of course, the factor that is now causing the greatest brain drain in Hong Kong's history. People who have a choice are choosing to leave and nothing that China has done so far with the Basic Law will provide the assurances necessary to slow this down and to give Hong Kong a chance to keep our most talented and best trained citizens.