07 JUN '91 11:37
A:
Q:
P.5
The future is well mapped out in the Joint Declaration. And there is a great deal of autonomy in the Hong Kong
government at the moment and of course we want to end this chapter of Hong Kong's history and our history and relationship with Hong Kong on a strong note. We want a smooth transfer of sovereignty. Very important, because the continuity to Hong Kong is vital. It's a trading
area. We don't want a sudden cliff on the 30 June 97,
a transfer should be smooth and automatic. So there's
got to be a great deal of discussion with China and a
great deal of preparation for that. A lot of work has gone on in the Joint Liaison Group. So we will continue to work very closely with the Hong Kong government to achieve a satisfactory transfer of sovereignty. also wish to fulfil all the points of the Joint Declaration. There are elections to LegCo this year, there will be further elections in '95. We look forward
to seeing good results of that. So we wish Hong Kong to remain a prosperous, stable, place in which people will
be happy to live and work.
We will
Are you still confident one country, two systems will actually work. Because we are actually seeing China intervening into the internal affairs of Hong Kong now, well before '97. Are you still confident that will
work?
A:
Q:
Yes, I am confident that that will work. The Chinese
have been very good at abiding by their word of
agreements. They have entered into an agreement which is lodged with the United Nations, which guarantees one
country, two systems, for 50 years. Now that was a very
good negotiation, hard negotiation, it took a lot of doing but it provided a very good basis which was
approved by the people of Hong Kong.
Today is 5 June, just one day after the second
anniversary of Tiananmen Square, can I get some comment