CONFIDENTIAL
IMMEDIATE
You the people of Hong Kong, have created here at the heart of
Asia, a wonder of the world, one of the most spectacular
examples of the virtues of a free economy known to
man.
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Now the people of Hong Kong face a new task. I am privileged to
share it with you. Our task for the future is as momentous as
your achievements in the past. It is a task that will require
all the qualities you have already shown resilience,
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determination, drive - but in still greater measure. It is a
task which, when we accomplish it successfully as we are going
to do will provide a shining example to the world of
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partnership and co-operation between peoples and nations for the
good of all.
of
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What we have to do in the last years of this tumultuous century
is to turn from earnest hope to firm reality, that historic and
far-sighted concept
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"one country, two systems".
When we have achieved that, we will have fulfilled the
promise enshrined in the Joint Declaration: a Hong Kong
whose future - founded in that Declaration - is secure; a Hong
Kong that cherishes and maintains its present lifestyle; a
capitalist heart beating at the centre of Asia, pumping
prosperity ever more widely.
6 That achievement will be good for the citizens of today's Hong
Kong; good for the citizens of the Hong Kong of tomorrow; good
for China; good for Britain; good for the close relationship
between our two ancient civilisations; and it will - as a new
century unfolds be good for the world.
As you know, I don't come today as a stranger to the