FOREIGN SECRETARY
Maga
SPEECH LONDON
16 SEPTEMBER 1991
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So this is a remarkable jewel.
The whole basis
of our policy
over the last decade has been to do our best to enable Hong Kong
to continue that story of success in conditions of stability,
justice and freedom into the next century.
That was the spirit in which Margaret Thatcher signed the 1984
Agreement. For 5 years after that Hong Kong prospered as China
and Britain cooperated over Hong Kong matters with the increasing
participation of people from Hong Kong itself. The economic
reform in China contributed to that success.
In 1989 there was a setback caused by the events in Tianenman
Square, the tragedy in Tianenman Square. We know the reasons for
that, we know the anxieties, dignified but very strong, which
those events aroused in Hong Kong. And we the British Government,
the Government of Hong Kong, EXCO, LEGCO, have been wrestling
since then to restore confidence and diminish anxiety. It has not
been entirely easy and there have been setbacks along the way, but
the Prime Minister's visit to Peking and Hong Kong a few weeks ago
marks I believe the opening of a new and better phase.
He signed of course in Peking with Prime Minister Li Peng the
Memorandum of Understanding on the airport and again anyone who
knows Hong Kong knows the great importance of that airport
project in itself. They also, the two Prime Ministers, reaffirmed
the content and the spirit of the Joint Declaration of 1984 and
there has been some real progress on a number of issues apart from
the airport in the last few weeks. I am thinking in particular of