PART FOUR: PRACTICAL AUTONOMY, THE JOINT DECLARATION AND THE BASIC LAW
A.
Attitudes
4.1.
In his speech to the Hong Kong Legislative Council on 10th October, 1990, the Governor referred to a "sincere effort to bolster Hong Kong so that it will have the strength to prosper as a Special Administrative Region after 1997". The question of how to "bolster' the territory's autonomy is indeed the crucial one; and, as everybody says continuously, the answer lies in the Joint Declaration, with action taken in accordance with its terms. The area of focus has to be the details of governance, and the manner in which public servants understand their function, and how they exercise their discretionary
powers.
4.2.
4.3.
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The British government see the Joint Declaration's "detailed and comprehensive provisions for Hong Kong's future, [as] the best that could have been achieved in the circumstances"; and it stresses the fact that: -
"We started off from the fact that 92 per cent of the territory was due to revert to China without any safeguards or assurances at all
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It goes on to say that the Joint Declaration:-
•
"remains the constant point of reference in all our discussions
with the Chinese. Everything that we sought to achieve in further agreement, everything we have so far agreed with them about Hong Kong's future, has been intended to be consistent with, and is fully consistent with, the provisions of the Joint Declaration All that has been achieved not by confrontation but by accepting the realities and by working hard to translate all the implications of the Joint Declaration into a future in which we from day to day and Hong Kong from day to day and in the future can make the most of the opportunities that are implicit in what has been achieved so far. We will continue to do absolutely everything we can in our power in every way that we can achieve it to ensure that Hong Kong remains a continuing success story, building on the foundations that are already there
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4
being
The Joint Declaration provides for "the legislature constituted by elections", the executive being "accountable" to the legislature, and "independent judicial power, including that of final adjudication". But as Jan Morris asked in her book Hong Kong: Epilogue to an Empire:-
"When the Chinese promised an elected legislature, did they mean it