VISIT BY LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL, 21
Subject: HONG KONG
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22 SEPTEMBER
HICO 026/12
43
Joint Declaration
1.
92% of Hong Kong's land area is held on a 99 year lease due to expire on 1 July 1997, whereupon it will revert to Chinese sovereignty. The remaining 8% is not viable on its own without Chinese cooperation. By the early 1980s there was increasing concern among investors in Hong Kong about the territory's future after 1997. One possibility was that China would reabsorb Hong Kong and that Hong Kong's distinct way of life would come to an end. However in 1982 Britain and China opened negotiations which led to the Sino-British
Joint Declaration of 1984. This laid down detailed and
binding arrangements for Hong Kong's future: for at least 50 years after 1997, Hong Kong is to remain as a separate entity with its own way of life unchanged.
2.
Under the Agreement, Hong Kong is to have its own Government, composed of Hong Kong people, not people brought in from China. The socialist system and socialist policies are not to be practised in Hong Kong. Hong Kong's capitalist system and way of life are to continue, and all its human rights and freedoms, its laws and its legal system, its own freely convertible currency, its financial markets and its free port are to remain intact.
3. The Joint Declaration was welcomed in 1984, both in Hong Kong and internationally, as the best achievable basis for a secure future for Hong Kong. The people of Hong Kong continue to regard the Joint Declaration as a good agreement. It remains the cornerstone of our policy.
JH4ABS/1
JRB