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THE SINO-BRITISH JOINT DECLARATION ON THE FUTURE OF HONG KONG
These three major proposals were first, that the Sino-British Agreement must be detailed and binding and the Basic Law must be based on the Agreement; second, that the people of Hong Kong should participate in the drafting of the Basic Law and those sections relating to Hong Kong's internal affairs should be drafted in the territory, and not amended except at the initiation of Hong Kong; and third, that a committee of Chinese people of international standing should be appointed by China to monitor and advise on the drafting, implementation and subsequent amendments to the Basic Law.
Their trip to Beijing also received overwhelming support from the public. A second poll taken by the same independent research firm showed that eight out of ten agreed with the UMELCO visit to Beijing; 74% supported the first, 78% the second, and 61% the third major proposal.
Acceptability of Joint Declaration
Since its publication on 26 September 1984, all the Unofficial Members, with the exception of two Members in the Legislative Council, have endorsed and commended the Draft Agreement to the people of Hong Kong. The Draft Agreement or Joint Declaration, in their view, does meet substantially the four basic criteria contained in the UMELCO statement made in London in May. Furthermore, there are in the Joint Declaration many positive features which are to be welcomed and it contains much more detail than many people originally expected. It is a mutually binding agreement, freely negotiated and entered into between two sovereign states.
All the 18 District Boards, as well as the Urban Council and the Heung Yee Kuk, have found the draft Joint Declaration generally acceptable. Unofficial Members, in conjunction with some newspapers, commissioned an independent research firm to conduct a territory- wide survey covering 6 000 randomly selected adults above the age of 18. The results of this professional survey indicated that the majority of the people of Hong Kong found the Draft Agreement generally acceptable and that 90% of the respondents preferred the Agreement to no Agreement at all.
Whilst the Draft Agreement is acceptable as a whole to the majority of the community, some concern and points of detail have been raised. In particular, there is anxiety about interference from the Chinese Government; worry about conscription in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; uncertainty about the acceptability to third countries of the new form of British passport; doubt about the preservation of existing human rights and personal freedoms; fear about the stationing of PLA troops in Hong Kong; resent- ment about the termination of transmissibility of British nationality for Hong Kong BDTCs in 1997; reservations about possible incompatibility between the constitution of the People's Republic of China and the future Basic Law of Hong Kong; and concern about the faithful implementation of the Agreement and the policies of future Chinese leaders.
There are also very strong requests that the people of Hong Kong should not only be consulted on, but should actively participate in, the drafting of the Basic Law and that Hong Kong people should also sit on the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group.
The ultimate success of the Joint Declaration depends on people's confidence that it will be implemented faithfully and that matters of concern and questions of detail which have been raised are satisfactorily resolved and clarified by the two signatory Governments. Therefore, in accepting the Agreement, we urge both the British and Chinese Governments to take steps to reassure the people of Hong Kong in these respects.
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