IPU SPRING CONFERENCE, CANBERRA 1993
SUBJECT: HONG KONG
Joint Declaration
1. 92% of Hong Kong's land area, the leased territory, is due to revert to Chinese sovereignty on 1 July 1997. 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. This is the framework for the
'high degree of autonomy' which the Joint Declaration
promises.
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
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