HONG KONG: DRAFT ARTICLE FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE
Hong Kong is a very special place the most exciting place that I visit. Our task in the remaining years of British sovereignty is to do all we can to preserve those things that have made Hong Kong so successful. That is an important responsibility, spelt out in the Sino-British Joint
Declaration. We intend to carry it out.
Why then the current turbulence with China? We are not, as is sometimes alleged, engaged in a tussle about democracy. The principle of a steady increase in democracy is agreed, and enshrined in the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law.
What we are talking about is putting that principle into practice. The Governor's October 1992 proposals put forward with our full support were carefully designed to be consistent with the Joint Declaration, the Basic Law and other
relevant exchanges between the British and Chinese
Governments. This has been confirmed by the unanimous evidence given recently by independent lawyers to the House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs.
It was simply not an option, in modern Hong Kong, to have held secret Sino-British negotiations on these vital issues before the Governor had set out his thinking publicly. But we have not tried to bulldoze our proposals through. We made clear from the outset that they were proposals which we wished to discuss with the Chinese side. That is why we pressed so hard for talks, and were pleased when they began in Peking in April.
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