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8.6.
(e)
as (d) but deface the Red Ensign with the existing Hong Kong badge, and detace the
PRC flag with a new badge after 1997
Conceptually and legally any of these options
are possible. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea does not require the flag which is to be flown to be of
the same design as the national flag; Britain's merchant fleet, for example, flies colours recognisable as British, but it does not fly the Union Flag. What is
conceptually acceptable may not, however, concur with
is politically and emotionally acceptable.
8.7.
The Chinese view is not known though informal
contacts suggest that it had not seriously occurred to
them to use anything other than the PRC flag after
1५५/. It is therefore quite possible that alternatives to this have not yet been assessed. As to what flag is
adopted up to 1997 the Chinese appear to assume that the
Ensign, qeraced it necessary, would be used.
rcom the Hong kong shipowners point of view,
the creation and acceptance of a separate identity for
Dest met by recourse to
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