14-JUL-1993 16:29
TRANSCRIPT B
0494536249 P.04
FOREIGN AFFAIRS SELECT
JAMES LEE
MR. ALASTAIR GOODLAD
14 JULY 1993
COMMITTEE
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relationship with China and when we have disagreements of course
they get a lot of coverage because they concern matters that are
very important to the future of Hong Kong and therefore very
important to us but the fact that we have detailed and robust
discussions about the future arrangements for the Legislative
Council in Hong Kong and the District Boards in the Municipal
Council does not mean that our bilateral relationship with China
is exclusively constituted by those discussions - very far from
it.
We have an increasingly important trading relationship with China,
the world's seventh largest economy, growing rapidly; we have a
good working relationship with them in the Security Council; they
are of course a very powerful influence for stability or the
reverse in the Asia Pacific region where we have very substantial
interests so it is an important relationship to us and these are
not the only aspects of it.
China is a nuclear power, it has a missile capability, it is a
country with massive environmental difficulties and aspects to it,
it is a country where human rights constitutes a substantial part
of our dialogue with them so it a country which is very important
to us obviously because of Hong Kong but a country where we have
contacts across a broad front and where we have what I believe is,
as it should be, a good relationship and it is very much in the
interests of Hong Kong that we should have a good relationship and
I am determined that we maintain that.