XN000022-1995-12-14 — Page 4

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3.

Governor: Let me first of all agree with the honourable member about the relationship between Hong Kong's economic prospects, the main subject on which I was proposing to answer questions today, and Hong Kong's way of life. It's naive of people purporting from time to time to speak for Hong Kong or to speak for the business or economic interests of Hong Kong to argue that there isn't the relationship between our freedoms, our pluralist values, the accountability of our legislature and our prosperity, there plainly is, and when you go to other countries in the Region, that is a point that people make to me and to others explicitly. Hong Kong would not be so successful if it was not so free. So the first point on which I agree with the honourable member is that there is a clear and explicit and intimate relationship between the sort of place Hong Kong is and the extraordinary developments in Hong Kong's economy over the

years.

Hong Kong has, of course, been a haven over the years for those who have fled from events elsewhere and arrive in Hong Kong with a very sharp and marked appreciation of the benefits of living in a free and open society.

Secondly, we know from the recent expressions of concern, by this Legislative Council and by the community, that the future of our way of life, the future protection of our civil liberties is a matter of major importance to people from all professions, from all backgrounds in Hong Kong. We know that when things were said by those who, sometimes it seems to me rather ill advisedly, tell PRC officials what they think should happen in Hong Kong and when things were said by PRC officials about gutting the Bill of Rights, about removing from our statute book laws which brought our own legislative framework into line with the international covenants, we know that when those things were said it sends a real worry, a real shiver of concern around the community. I don't make those things up. If anything I rather understate them. Just look at what the editorials in virtually the whole of the Chinese language press said about those matters. The Legislative Council when it voted was clearly in line with the overwhelming majority of opinion in this community.

So against that background, it's not very surprising that an event like the sentencing of Mr Wei yesterday causes further concern in the community, because people understandably worry about how substantial our protections, their protections are, after 1997.