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Mr Eric Li (in Chinese): Thank you Mr President. Mr Governor, in your Policy Address I think you have covered a lot of ground and you have detailed the achievements that you have made during your term in Hong Kong and you have also provided a number of pointers and even benchmarks for your successor.
Mr Governor, this is my question for you; is it your hope that Hong Kong people or even international media would compare the performance of you and your Administration to that of the future Chief Executive of the SAR Government?
Governor: To be honest with the Honourable gentleman, no that isn't my particular wish, though I would hope and expect that the position in five years' time would be even more successful than the position today. That is my hope though I think it's reasonable of me to point out from time to time the conditions which would make that hope likelier to be attained rather than less likely to be attained.
I think I made clear yesterday my optimism and I was therefore surprised by what one or two Legislative Council Members said, including I think some who are colleagues of the Honourable gentleman, and one or two of the newspapers were rather surprising as well. In one of our major newspapers this morning there was a column on the front page saying that I'd expressed more anxiety than certainty for the future and an article on the front page of a supplement saying that academics interviewed all thought I painted too rosy a picture of Hong Kong. Most of the international press, for example the Financial Times took the view that I'd struck a largely optimistic tone about Hong Kong's prospects. The Asian Wall Street Journal said that I'd eulogised Hong Kong's economic success during the uncertain years leading up to Chinese rule. It's certainly my view that provided Hong Kong sticks to a winning formula, Hong Kong will be even more successful in the future than it is today and those academics who think that that's too rosy a picture are not people that I'd agree with. But as I said there is a condition precedent and that is that we should continue to enjoy the rule of law and all the freedoms which are set out in some detail in the Joint Declaration.
Mr Eric Li (in Chinese): Thank you Mr Governor for your clarification. When you first came to Hong Kong Mr Governor, now you know that to give up the colonial convention you have done a lot and you have been praised for this and you did give people the impression that you acted in a very different way than past Governors. So with regard to the future Chief Executive, it seems in your Policy Address you have spent so much time letting people know expectations for him, so with regard to the Chief Executive, do you think he should try to find his own way, his own route or do you think he should follow your suit? Because you have really spent a lot of time in your Policy Address talking about the Chief Executive.
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