suppressed and later discouraged.
-
not
To this day and to the
British withdrawal a fully elected legislature is achieved. No act of self-determination was ever conducted to provide for the passing of power over those people on 30 June At midnight on that 1997 to the People's Republic of China. day, the British flag will be lowered on the colony of Hong Kong. Hong Kong will become a Special Administrative Region (SAR) under the direct authority of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China (PRC).2 In a belated effort to protect the future of the people of the British Hong Kong who remain there after 1997,
1997.
This
Even more
negotiators secured a Joint Declaration with the PRC. included a number of promises by the PRC to respect the basic rights, system of government and capitalist economy of Hong
Kong for fifty years after
years after 30 June belatedly, steps have been taken to provide Hong Kong with a to amend of the justiciable Bill of Rights Ordinance and Letters Patent of the Governor to incorporate into local law most of the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (but not those relevant to the basal
entitlement
to
self-determination)
exercise
the
right
to
3
•
of These changes
status rest
upon no decision of the people of Hong Kong but upon a treaty negotiated over the heads of those people, by a spent Imperial power with a modern Imperial power (PRC) who share
in common
the wishes of the an ultimate indifference to the wishes
people of Hong Kong about their own future.
a recent
This is an ignoble end to the British involvement in
Hong Kong. The question upon most
upon most lips at
conference in Hong Kong was whether, after June
1997 the 1997
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