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CHINESE LANGUAGE DIVISION
produced through a bicameral system.
317 F34
The authority of the present Legislative Council comes from
the British Crown but authority after 1997 will come from the
Basic Law. The biggest difference lies in the fact that a high
degree of autonomy is out of
out of the question under the present
SAR a high degree of autonomy of the arrangement whereas
guaranteed by the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic
Bs a fact ? (More Conccté, Can a guarante
Law.
is
Insofar as the transitional period is concerned, in the Sino-
British Joint Declaration, Britain pledged to the Chinese side
that Hong Kong would be administered properly to preserve its
prosperity and stability. Neither side took the view the Hong
Kong should start to enjoy a high dagree of autonomy before
1997.
Quite!
Because people quite
people quite intuitively hope that there will be no
turmoil in Hong Kong during the transition, many Councillors, and
officials likewise, have regularly over-emphasised the similarity
of the Hong Kong Government before and after 1997. Dissimilarity
has been side-stepped in order to put people's minds at ease on
the one hand, and also to protect vested interests on the other.
Suggestions based on such thinking are not realistic. Whatever
similarity there is between the Government now and the Government
which will come into being after 1997 is only superficial;
dissimilarity between the two is, however, very real. Given that
the future SAR Government will differ from the present Government
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