XN000022-1995-01-23 — Page 8

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My actual question is: You spoke about people seeking assurances increasingly from the incoming sovereign rather than from Britain and I'm just wondering, given the arrest of a Hong Kong businessman, problems with developments in the heart of Beijing, intellectual property rights, etc, if assurances are sought and given, what degree of likelihood do you see that they will actually be believed?

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Governor: Let me deal with the second point first. Clearly, there comes a point - and I suspect it's come when my reassurances about the business atmosphere or related matters after 1997 are rather less important to investors and businessmen than what Chinese officials say. And what Chinese officials say will always be related to the backdrop of what is happening in China and what is promised for Hong Kong. I think a sensible businessman would recognise the considerable difficulties which Chinese officials have faced and have faced on the whole with considerable success. I would hope too, that a businessman looking to the future would take it as a mark of comfort rather than the reverse that Chinese officials were increasingly so open about the economic problems that they have to face and overcome, sometimes more open and therefore more convincing than some enthusiasts outside. So I hope that people, in taking reassurance from Chinese officials, won't expect the impossible and won't be too starry-eyed in their assessments of what is possible in China.

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I think we may be - or you may be inventing a theological point which I don't quite understand in relation to the Preparatory Committee. Our position is absolutely clear. We think that the Hong Kong community expects the Hong Kong Government to give the maximum help to the Preparatory Committee in all its activities, provided, and I'm sure they will be, that they are in line with the Joint Declaration and appear to be in Hong Kong's interests. Not a question of whether the Preparatory Committee makes an application for assistance to the Government or to individual civil servants. I imagine that one of the things we will want to agree on is some clearing-house through which Preparatory Committee requests for help and information can be put. But those are things which we need to discuss with Chinese officials.

I could share any one of a number of ideas on co-operation with you this lunch- time but it is rather more significant for us to work them out with Chinese officials. either in the JLG or in some other forum. But we have no theological difficulties about supporting, working with, the Preparatory Committee. And the way we work with them, the support we provide, could take any of a number of forms. The provision of facilities, the provision of staff support, all those sort of things which I just offer as examples, we need to talk to Chinese officials about.