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NUAL REPORT ON HONG KONG
1991
Her Majesty's Government agreed in 1985, during the Parliamentary debates on the Hong Kong Bill, to produce annual reports on Hong Kong and to lay them before Parliament. The purpose of this series of reports is to keep Parliament informed of developments in Hong Kong on a regular basis. This is the seventh such report and it contains a survey of the main events in Hong Kong during 1991.
II. Visits to Hong Kong by Members of the Royal Family and Government Ministers 2. The frequency of high-level British visits to Hong Kong is a measure of the importance the Government attach to the affairs of the territory. His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh and His Royal Highness the Prince Edward visited Hong Kong in October: His Royal Highness the Duke of York visited in September and their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Kent visted in December. There have been visits by the following members of the Cabinet: by the Prime Minister, Mr John Major, in September; by Mr Douglas Hurd, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, in April and September: by Mr Michael Heseltine, Secretary of State for the Environment. in September; by Mr Tom King, Secretary of State for Defence, in September; by Mr John Wakeham. Secretary of State for Energy, in November; and by Mr John Gummer, Minister of Agriculture. Fisheries and Food in October. There were also visits by Lord Caithness. Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, in January, July and December; and by Lord Brabazon, Minister for Aviation, in February.
III. Hong Kong and China
(a) Sino-British Relations
3. The United Kingdom's relations with China continued to improve in 1991. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs visited Peking in April. In July, the "Memorandum of Understanding concerning the Construction of the New Airport in Hong Kong and Related Questions" (the airport agreement), was reached after lengthy negotiations. This allowed work to get under way on the new airport for Hong Kong, which is essential to Hong Kong's continuing success as an important regional centre in the decades ahead. (See paragraph 35 below.) This agreement was signed by the Prime Minister and the Chinese Premier, Mr Li Peng, during a visit to Peking by the Prime Minister in September. The Prime Minister's visit brought about a more business-like phase in Sino-British relations. The airport agreement itself was part of a broader improvement in Britain's relations with China. Her Majesty's Government will continue to work for more co-operative relations with the Chinese Government, particularly over Hong Kong, which remains the most substantial element in Sino-British relations. To this end, the Foreign Secretary and the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs will hold regular six-monthly meetings, starting with a meeting in London in March 1992.
(b) Sino-British Joint Liaison Group and Land Commission
4. The Joint Liaison Group held four plenary meetings during the year: one in Peking in March, one in London in September, and two in Hong Kong in June and December. The work of the Joint Liaison Group was given a boost by the visit of the Prime Minister to Peking in September and the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Hong Kong's new airport. In the Joint Communiqué issued at the end of that visit, the two sides undertook to speed up the work of the Joint Liaison Group by devoting the necessary resources to it and by introducing more flexible ways of conducting its business.
5. The plenary meetings were supplemented by frequent contacts, both formal and informal, between the two offices of the Joint Liaison Group. There were three rounds of expert talks on the future of defence lands in Hong Kong and two rounds of expert talks on the Court of Final Appeal. The International Rights and Obligations Sub-Group held three meetings, and experts met informally during the year to carry forward other items of Joint Liaison Group business. The inaugural meeting of the Airport Committee, presided over by the two Senior Representatives to the Joint Liaison Group, took place in November.
217752 B*
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