Hong Kong's way of life to survive unchanged
for 50 years after 1997. We all know that
the agreement provides for Hong Kong to have
a high degree of autonomy, with its existing
social and economic systems, its laws and
its basic freedoms intact.
3. But of course there have been plenty of
Jeremiahs to deride these paper guarantees.
I have two answers for them. The first is
that the joint declaration is a binding
international agreement, registered at the
United Nations. The People's Republic of
China has never broken such an international
In the last year, China's
agreement.
leadership have been at pains to assert that
their policy towards Hong Kong remains
unaltered, and have consistently reaffirmed
their commitment to the joint declaration,
and to the concept of "one country, two
systems".
4.
But more important is the second answer.
China has a massive and growing economic and
political stake in Hong Kong and in its
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