XN000022-1996-10-09 — Page 3

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Question: Mr Governor, some Japanese officials have already expressed regret about the Hong Kong protesters going to Diaoyu Tai Islands and also they have already asked the Hong Kong Government to do something on this. So, what is your comment on this?

Governor: My comment is very much what I have just said. We have been in regular contact with the Japanese authorities; they have expressed their concerns to us but we have pointed out that in a free society we can't stop people expressing their views - and would not seek to do so. However, we do feel very strongly that it is important that people express their views within the law, that there aren't any breaches of the law however strongly people feel. Once you break the law you are on a very slippery slope.

Question: Governor, how do you react to the right-wing group of Japanese? They claim to kill Chinese and Hong Kong people. How do you deal with this threat to Hong Kong?

Governor: I was interested in the reports yesterday, and obviously concerned. I was slightly surprised that there had been no report earlier to the police from the New China News Agency. I very much hope that they will give the police a copy of this Japanese letter, which I think was written in Chinese, and give the police the chance of following it up and seeing whether there is a real threat. I was surprised that even though the letter had apparently been sent a week earlier, it was only yesterday that we heard about it. But obviously it is a matter of concern. We have a very professional police, we are one of the safest cities in the world, and the police will want, of course, to make sure that if people are writing letters like this and making threats like this, that they are dealt with. But unless we have a copy of the letter and unless the matter is reported to the police, there is not very much that can be done about it.

Question: Governor, it is reported that some people are dissatisfied with your policy address, so what do you think about this?

Governor: I notice that the approval rating for me in the poll that was carried out and published on Monday showed that the approval rating had gone up to 67% from 62% and showed that we got higher marks for the policy address this year than the policy address last year. That seems to me to be a pretty satisfactory outcome. I am perfectly happy - if there are some people who are critical about the policy proposals we have put forward in the last week or so, or the progress report that we have given - I am perfectly happy to have a dialogue with them but I have to point out that the overall level of satisfaction in the community seems to be pretty high.