TNAG-1173-FCO40-1465-Future-of-Hong-Kong-special-study-by-FCO-for-the-Prime-Minis-1982 — Page 169

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acceptable to HMG if the PRC for their part were willing to

acknowledge that the agreed date would not be fixed until a

substantial number of years had passed and that any date

fixed would be such as to allow a transitional period during

which new arrangements for the administration of the

territory as part of the PRC acceptable to a majority of the

inhabitants could be worked out. It is, however, unlikely

to be attractive to the Chinese, because it would not

sufficiently meet their political requirement for tangible

recognition of their sovereignty soon.

Acknowledgement of Chinese sovereignty in 1997 coupled with

fresh arrangements

13.

It might be possible for the UK and the PRC to enter

into arrangements (whether by a formal international agree-

ment or otherwise) under which the UK would continue to

administer Hong Kong on the same lines as hitherto and have

power to conduct external relations in respect of Hong Kong

on condition that the UK relinquished its sovereignty over

the ceded parts of the colony when the international lease

of the New Territories expired.

14.

There are many earlier examples of the exercise by

the UK or jurisdiction in the territory of another state over

which the UK did not posess sovereignty (eg Brunei, Tonga,

the Persian Gulf States, the Malay States, Zanzibar) and

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/provision