XN000022-1993-05-04 — Page 47

TUESDAY, MAY 4, 1993

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So businessmen who think that it wouldn't much

matter if Hong Kong changed in its fundamentals better ask

themselves what the credit rating would be if those things

changed. They better ask themselves whether American

banks would have quite as many assets locked up in Hong

Kong if Hong Kong was no different from Shenzhen.

They better ask themselves whether it might not

be the case that some of the 15 American banks or 21

American insurance companies or 900 American firms or

26,000 American community who are in Hong Kong at the moment might not have nipped off to Taipei or Seoul or Tokyo or Singapore, where they might argue they could be

rather surer about the rule of law.

There is, I repeat, a close relationship between a free press, a credible legislature which isn't afraid to ask difficult questions, and the rule of law itself. And not to understand those things is to fail to comprehend one of the most fundamental aspects of our own society: yours here in North America and ours in Western Europe.

MR, BERGER: You mentioned rule of law, and this

you talked about the rule of law being a key to Hong Kong's future, but isn't emuggling big business in Hong Kong these days?

question

/GOVERNOR PATTEN: