HONG KONG PROVISIONAL URBAN COUNCIL
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Something that stems from their willingness and as long as the Council has different views (resulting from a contest of wills between the Councillors), they would get hold of it properly. As for matters to which they have an aversion, they put off handling them.
Mr. Chairman, while the weakness displayed by the Governments between the Strait in handling the Diaoyu Islands issue is still fresh in our memory, one really marvels at the SAR Government's moves which have been following in their footsteps. In the past, many people attacked British imperialism and said what this colonial country had fallen into a decline. Yet Japan, being an invader, was still willing to offer a formal apology to a country that had been on a decline and even allocated funds to serve as compensation. How come our country, which is getting stronger every day and whose sun is just rising, is willing to forgo its dignity and tolerate the invader's continued invasion of our territory?
As I have just said, according to international law and history, the Diaoyu Islands are indisputably Chinese territory. Yet our Governments, including the Central Government and the SAR Government, are unable to express strongly the determination of the Chinese people. I hope that all SAR officials, from senior to junior, will reconsider their attitude and foster the sentiment of ‘our land not to be severed from us'. If we talk about patriotism, it is even more important for us to love our territory. At public occasions, do not call the Diaoyu Islands as the Senkaku Archipelago again. Also, do not submit to Japan. It is very simple. When Japan said that we had deceived them in matters regarding tourism, we should explain immediately and said: "We have not done that.' When our territory is occupied, how come we dare not say uncompromisingly: 'Give it back to us immediately"?
These are my remarks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
MR. CHOW Kwok-Leung (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, I would like to take the occasion of today's Annual Conventional Debate to bring up three issues and of course, there will be some suggestions also.
The first issue is about the incidents that cropped up last year involving food premises not meeting hygiene requirements and the suspected outbreak of cholera. These incidents show that there are many illegal food premises in Hong Kong and the Council should step up its work in the aspect of hygiene. At present, there is a provisional licensing system which allows temporary operation of unlicensed food premises pending the issue of a formal licence. However, the whole licensing process takes some time to complete because the vetting of licence applications involves other government departments and the Council can only issue a licence after receiving the response from these departments. Many operators find the licence application a difficult task and some operators even make no attempt to apply since they will not be charged by the Urban Council or the Urban Services Department everyday. And even
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