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Hong Kong will change in 1997. It's bound to change in some respects. It's a largely Chinese city, with an international outlook, which the chance of history made a British colony. The last major British colony. And come 1997 it's a Chinese city in China, albeit with its special qualities preserved and guaranteed.
But, I don't think Hong Kong will change fundamentally if the men and women who live here don't want it to change. Fatalism, thinking there's nothing you can do, expecting the worst, is self-fulfilling. Things don't have to change for the worst and I don't believe they will. And that's a reason for not being pessimistic, for not throwing in the towel.
Now, it's not a cop-out for me to say these things. I have to do all I can before midnight on 30 June two years hence to give Hong Kong under Chinese sovereignty the best chance of continuing to thrive, to succeed, to hit the record books.
But much, most, depends on Hong Kong.
If people want our freedoms to survive they won't offer Faustian deals which imply that provided one can go on making money, none of this stuff about freedom and the rule of law really matters. That sort of attitude shows a non-existent sense of morality and, arguably, a very short-sighted grasp of how to go on doing good business.
If people like newspapers, radio stations and television channels which will tell them pretty openly what's happening here and in the rest of the world then it's up to And it's them to make that clear. Self-censorship is especially corrosive. unnecessary. Journalists, editors, proprietors. shouldn't take the scissors to their own work when no one else would dare to do so.
If Hong Kong wants its government to go on doing business on the basis of who offered the best deal, not whose name is on the note-paper, then we musn't collude at infringements of this vital principle.
If people believe in themselves and their values, they really will survive. Thinking and expecting the worst can, as I've said, be unpleasantly self-fulfilling. Do you remember that old advertisement for self- development courses positive"? Well, it's not a bad slogan for us. Be positive and act positive, too.
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