CONFIDENTIAL
Reference
Mr Ricketts
BOUNDARIES OF HONG KONG AFTER 1997
1. As you know HKG have been negotiating for several years the boundaries of Hong Kong with the Guangdong government. These negotiations are progressing slowly. We have argued that the agreed boundaries should also be the boundaries of the SAR and that therefore this is a question for the JLG. The Chinese have steadfastly rejected this.
2.
When the Basic Law was adopted by the NPC it also decided that the SAR is to be established as of 1 July 1997 and "The Areas of the HKSAR covers the Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon Penninsula, and the islands and adjacent waters under its jurisdiction. The map of the administrative division of the HKSAR will be published by the State Council separately". This has not been done. The lack of reference to the new territories is viewed as a Chinese reluctance to use a 'colonialist' term.
3.
Since this decision of the NPC does not have the status of the Basic Law (which does not define the HKSAR) it could be easily changed. This has lead to a variety of rumours, the most common of which is that Shenzhen would be absorbed into the SAR. On purely economic/industrial grounds this might make good sense. As reforms progress in the SEZ the border may appear more and more arbitrary.
4. On political grounds, while such an enlargement, would not (subject to Miss Brooks views) be a breach of the JD, Shenzhen residents would be something of 2nd class citizens since they would not be "local residents" and hence entitled to participate in government and the legislature etc. Foreign governments might not recognize such an SAR as being able to inherit Hong Kong's trading privileges (under eg the
MFA.
5. The Chinese might feel that the 3 million Shenzhen residents would be natural pro-PRC voters in direct elections. I suspect however that, once they were permanent residents of the SAR, their behaviour in this regard would rapidly become little different from that of other residents.
6. An alternative scenario, canvassed by the International Commission of Jurists (who take a jaundiced view of the NPC decision referred to above) is that the Chinese would detach the new territories from the SAR. This would have enormous effects on Hong Kong and would convey no advantage to the Chinese at all as far as I am aware.
7.
In conclusion, while I feel that there might be some advantage to Hong Kong in expanding the SAR, the added uncertainty of such a move would mean that it would have a
mainly negative effect on Hong Kong. We should therefore
CONFIDENTIAL
CODE 18-77
BUNACE
SLM