XN000022-1996-04-26 — Page 9

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There is one other thing I would say which is more a question perhaps of attitude than specifics. I think that by and large there are two sort of unbelievable stories about Hong Kong and one which is not put as often which the rest of the world, when you try to put it, finds a good deal more credible.

You can take the view, as some do, that there is not a problem on the horizon - not a cloud in the sky, everything is going to be stunning. Do they believe that out there? Or you can take the view that it is all going to be an absolute calamity,

all going to be a complete disaster. Should they believe that outside?

I think the truth is a lot more sensitive and a lot more sensible. I think the truth is that anybody in their right mind should be optimistic about Hong Kong, but pretty realistic in their optimism as well, recognising that there are some real difficulties in the months and years ahead but believing, as I do, that the one ingredient people always leave out when they give their assessment of Hong Kong is the people who live here.

People write about Hong Kong as though the six million people who live here are corks on the tide. Hong Kong is going to remain a very special place because the people who live here are very special. They are astonishingly resilient. They are economically wonderfully agile. They are also committed to a set of decent values which in my judgment represent the future in Asia not the past.

So, I do not deny that there are problems ahead and I think that it is more credible if you occasionally point to those as well. But because I believe and trust the people of Hong Kong I think that Hong Kong will, to borrow a phrase from my children, hack it and hack it extremely successfully.

Question: (inaudible) changes in relationship, one being that (inaudible) China has a relationship with France for the aeroplanes, and also it has been, in the papers, said that in Taiwan the tension has eased up a little bit. Do you think this will have an impact when you go to the United States as far as helping with the MFN situation?

Governor: Well, I am not sure what impact some of the contracts signed in France will have on lobbying by Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas in the United States. Look, I do not believe in getting politics and trade tangled up together.. I do not think it works for other countries and I always raise an eyebrow when I see it suggested that China might be getting the two tied up together.