- 7 - 7.
Question: How could you reconcile a demand to give support to a provisional legislature and at the same time, as you say, it is a violation of the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law?
Governor: But the assumption behind your question is one that bears no relation to the answers that I've given. I've made it clear again and again and again. You know perfectly well what my position is, what the Government's position is, that we'll do nothing whatsoever, that's nothing, spelt N-O-T-H-I-N-G, nothing whatsoever to take away from, to undermine, the authority, the legitimacy of Hong Kong's Legislative Council. And that has been our position; it's the position of the British Government; it's the position of the Hong Kong Government and it will remain our position.
Question: NCNA's vice director, Mr Zhang Junsheng, yesterday said he hoped the Government would not help anything in the list selectively. What is your opinion on that?
Governor: My opinion on that is that we're the Government, we'll co-operate according to the criteria that I've just mentioned. And those criteria should be wholly acceptable to Chinese officials. If you go through them one at a time, just tell me which ones Chinese officials may not be able to accept. That was a very curious headline in one of the papers today which went something like this: Chinese Co- operation Threat. Seems to me to be rather a confusion of words to talk about threats and co-operation in the same breath. But I take it it was the sub-editors doing rather than any Chinese officials. On which note ... Yes, sorry.
Question: Do you define that assistance to the provisional legislature as a kind of act that will help demanding the authority of the Hong Kong Government ...?
Governor: If you believe that as we all do, as Britain does, as international opinion does, that there is a Legislative Council in Hong Kong which is freely and fairly elected, which is doing its work within the terms of the Joint Declaration and that it's holding the Government to account as it's supposed to do, then it inevitably raises question marks in your mind about what on earth it is that a provisional legislature is supposed to be doing. And you also conclude, I'm sure, that since Chinese officials themselves have made it absolutely plain that the Hong Kong Government and its institutions are responsible for Hong Kong until 30th June 1997, that they too would have concerns about that matter.
End