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So what do I say in an attempt to remove the anxieties from furrowed brows?
I start by reminding people how many times Hong Kong has been killed off in the headlines before. You could paper the walls, with our premature obituaries. Why don't people who write about or comment on our affairs, try to keep a sense of proportion? Why don't they remember any history?
When the Joint Declaration was signed over ten years ago, much of the world said that Hong Kong was finished. One famous business magazine predicted that there'd be no more big building projects in Hong Kong. Just look out of the window and see how right that forecast was. So, today, when people say, "it's all up", just remember that since those things were said in 1984, our economy has grown by over 80 per cent. Our exports have shot up by over 400 per cent. There are proportionately about eight times as many young people going to tertiary colleges. We've built new tunnels. New houses. New skyscrapers. New hospitals. New homes for the elderly. Our reserves have grown by 600 per cent. Our place as one of the best and brightest business centres in the world has been confirmed. So, if that's what it's like to be on the scrap heap, maybe we should be searching for a few more.
Turn the clock on to Tiananmen in 1989, or to the row with China in 1992 and the following year about keeping our promises on democracy. When you see what's happened since those dates again, when calamity was forecast, collapsing skies, collapsing markets it's the same story. Hong Kong kept its nerve. To borrow a phrase, we kept cool and kept on collecting.
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1997 colly-wobbles deserve to be treated, first, with a good dollop of history and experience.
But that isn't going to be enough. What more is required?
First, it really is important to make clear that we're certainly not going to make big changes in Hong Kong before 1997. Now we've got a wholly elected legislature - just as was promised - we should show clearly to the world that its vigorous activities are wholly compatible with good government and good economics. That doesn't mean that nothing changes. It requires, as I've said before, give and take. Not all give from one side, and all take from the other. Whatever we do in working out our relationship, we mustn't depart or give the impression of departing from the economic policies that have made Hong Kong so successful.
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