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Governor: I'll tell them what's happening in Hong Kong and I'll express my views about our relationship with the United States in the same sort of terms that I used when I was speaking to the Chambers of Commerce last Friday. I pointed out then why the United States and indeed the world will continue to have an interest in what happens in Hong Kong.
Question: Prime Minister Qian had said two things. I wonder if you could comment on them. One is there are no serious questions anymore left between Hong Kong Government and China; problems have been solved. And when he said there won't be a second power centre, in fact, isn't there already a de facto power centre in the Preparatory Committee ...? In fact isn't there going to be a second power centre and what about the fact that all problems have been solved?
Governor: I wish it were true that all our problems had been solved. I think to say that everything is solved, everything is sorted out is to suggest that merely to state one's point of view regardless of what Hong Kong thinks, regardless of what the United Kingdom and indeed international opinion thinks is to settle the problem, is to settle the issue. That simply isn't the case. We know perfectly well that in Hong Kong people are extremely concerned about decisions that have been taken by the Preparatory Committee, by Chinese officials that is, about the Legislative Council and about the Bill of Rights. You can't simply settle issues in an open and plural society by closing the book and saying I've made my mind up. I think that people in Hong Kong who are after all promised that they will run Hong Kong in the future, I think people in Hong Kong will make it perfectly clear over the coming years that they want to have a say about how the rice is cooked. Your second question?
Question: It's true that they won't be a de jure second power centre, but in fact from the way the Chinese officials speak and from the way that members of the Preparatory Committee speak and in future when ... in fact isn't there already a more powerful de facto power centre here before 1997? Doesn't it already exist?
Governor: I've been told ever since I arrived that there were second stoves, second power centres. All I can tell you is that we've managed to continue to administer Hong Kong decisively, and I think effectively and we'll continue to do so. Let me just qualify that remark however. When there is a Chief Executive (designate), inevitably a lot of people are going to see him or her as reflecting their aspirations for post-97 and they're going to see him or her as having some of the answers to the challenges that Hong Kong will face in the future. That's natural; that's inevitable. It happens I guess to a more limited degree when you have a change of administration in a democratic society, but where there is an overlap as it's happened recently in Spain for example, that's an inevitable part of the process. I think myself that it's not sensible to talk about power as it was entirely divorced from the hearts and minds of the population in a free and open society like Hong Kong is. And I think the sort of power that everybody in an open society should seek is that which comes from having convinced people that you're doing the right thing rather than told people what you're going to do.