}
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and would continue to depend on British administration,
Without a
ritish administration, there would be no confidence, She was not
talking about 1997. If when she reached Hong Kong during her
current visit she said that there had been no meeting of minds
about the future of British administration, what did the Chinese
side think the effect would be? The consequences would occur
not in 1997 but in 1982. We had to retain confidence now.
Resuming his statement, Premier Zhao Ziyang said that there were
two principles sovereignty and the prosperity and stability of
Hong Kong. If it came to a choice between the two, China would put
sovereignty above prosperity and stability. Sovereignty was a
matter of principle, and no sovereign state would do otherwise.
He had to say that he did not agree with the Prime Minister's
statement that if China recovered sovereignty, prosperity would be
destroyed and that large amounts of capital would leave Hong Kong. He did not think it impossible to maintain the confidence of
investors and maintain the interests of the Hong Kong people in
stability and prosperity after the Chinese Government had recovered
the sovereignty. There were 15 years to go, and it was very
important that the British Government should show a spirit of
co-operation during that period. So long as both sides showed full co-operation he believed that it was possible to avoid confusion
in Hong Kong during the transitional period. China did not want to see a mess in Hong Kong, and he believed that this would not
be beneficial to the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister interjected
that it would not be beneficial to China either. Continuing,
Premier Zhao Ziyang referred to the Prime Minister's remarks about
recent developments in Hong Kong markets. There were many reasons for those developments, but in the opinion of the Chinese Government
the spread of the news that China would recover sovereignty over
Hong Kong was not the main reason. Looking at the matter analytically,
he had to say that if China pursued a policy of maintaining prosperity
and stability in Hong Kong, there was no reason why Chinese investors
should not stay there: where else were they to go? The Prime Minister
interjected that they could go to Singapore, the Philippines, or even
New York, and indeed were doing so now. She had an obligation to talk frankly to the Chinese Government because the people to whom
they talked in Hong Kong would not
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