advance indication that the PCG is likely to endorse the boundary in the MOU, the Chinese will certainly draw the boundaries of the SAR as they wish.
In paragraph 14, the paper concedes that an accusation may be made that HMG has ceded territory and obtained only a non-binding undertaking in return. I think this point ought to figure more prominently in the paper than it does at present.
6.
7.
The paper does at least accept that two questions had not previously been thought through (see paragraph 9); these are elaborated in paragraphs 9 and 10. This represents a major concession: the Political Adviser's Office now accepts that legal changes will be necessary. Of course, the consequence of these will be that the boundary will not be an "administrative" boundary, whatever that may be; it will be a legal boundary, the legal boundary of Hong Kong before (and we hope, after) 1997.
Shelagh Brooks
Shelagh Brooks