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Question: Mr Governor, in regard to the Chinese dissident, Mr Wang Xizhe, the Vice- Director of the Xinhua News Agency said that the Hong Kong Government did interfere in his case and --
Governor: Sorry, can you say that again?
Question: Wang Xizhe. Yes, the Vice-Director of Xinhua.
Governor: Yes, what did he say?
Question: He said that the Hong Kong Government, the way the Hong Kong Government did, is equal to encourage the illegal immigrants to immigrate to other countries. And he said that the Hong Kong Government should be responsible for his escape to the United States. What's your reaction?
Governor: I don't want to comment. I haven't commented on issues like that for four and a half years and I don't intend to break the habit of a lifetime.
Question: Mr Governor, would you consider the June 4th commemorative assemblies politically inadvisable?
Governor: Well, you would have observed that while I have been Governor in a society which believes in freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, those vigils have taken place. They have taken place with great dignity. Many thousands of people have taken part in those vigils and they have demonstrated when they did so, that in Hong Kong people are able to express their views, however strongly they feel them, with dignity, responsibility and restraint.
Question: Governor, some days before, China condemned the United States and Hong Kong for helping the dissidents, the Chinese dissidents, run away from the Mainland to a third country. So what is your opinion? And Hong Kong still continues to help the dissidents run away from the Mainland.
Governor: I have just said a moment or two ago that I wasn't going to break the habit of a lifetime and I am not going to break the habit of a lifetime so soon after declining to break the habit of a lifetime.
Question: Mr Patten, do you need to elaborate on the high level contact you had - that Britain has had with the Chinese side on Mr Qian's comments?
Governor: It was high.