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I said there is sensitivity about what Chinese officials often call internationalisation. But the fact of the matter is that this is a city which becomes part of China in 1997 but it is also an international city, full of people from other parts of the world, one of the great cities of the globe. A great trading city, like New York or Venice or Amsterdam or London at their peaks of prosperity, and it could be, analysts say, I was reading one of those futurologists the other day who said that by the year 2010, 2020, something in that decade Hong Kong, on present trends, would become the richest city in the world. Now it's not surprising, under those circumstances, that the world takes an interest in what happens here.
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I think Chinese officials, in their hearts, know that. I think that's why one very distinguished Chinese leader recently made his famous teapot speech, saying that the world would be looking at how China handled this precious teapot, how China managed to go on pouring very good tea out of this precious teapot.
I think that Chinese officials know, in their hearts, that the rest of the world is going to regard the way one country two systems works after 1997, the way China, Peking, relates to Hong Kong, as a sort of litmus test for how China is going to behave in the region and in the world as its greatness as a nation is manifested in the role that it plays on the international stage.
So, speaking for myself without in any way wishing to construct conspiracies or surround China in any unfair way, I very much hope that our friends around the world will continue to take an interest, will continue to visit, will continue to write, will continue to make programmes, will continue to report, will continue to make their views felt. Just as I'm sure Chinese people going to other places make their thoughts about them manifest as well.
One last thought. There are many guarantees for Hong Kong's civil liberties. There's the Basic Law, there's the International Covenants, there's the Joint Declaration. But the most important guarantee is people's commitment to those civil liberties. Example: reporting what's going on. Self-censorship, which journalists very often worry about, can only be dealt with by not allowing oneself to be censored. It's easier for me to say it, I concede straightaway, because I won't be here after 1997. But who knows, there may even be a little self-censorship today.