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Speaking to newsmen, Mr. Lee, said they bought back from China reassurances that the Chinese Government would handle the issue of HK's future with great care and not upset prosperity and stability. A settlement would be found to bring honour to both sides. The group told the Chinese authorities that HK was experiencing a confidence crisis over uncertainty about the future. The self-government proposition from Beijing would upset the prosperity and stability of HK. The fear had intensified since it was believed there was deadlock in the Sino-British talks. The group believed the self-government formula was as
yet untried. Putting a capitalist system under a socialist system would present a basic contradiction. It remained an experiment. The current confidence crisis had manifested itself in several ways. They included the continuous weakening of the HK dollar, the wait-and-see attitude of both local and foreign investors on new projects, the holding back of reinvestment in industry and the outflow of professional and managerial talent. The group had told the Chinese leadership they respected the Chinese stand on sovereignty over
HK.
During their visit, male members of the group met an NPC vice-chairman, Mr. Xi Zhongxun, and the director of the United Front Work Department, Mr. Yang Jingren; women members met another NPC vice-chairman, Ms. Deng Yingchao, wife of late Chinese premier, Mr. Chou Enlai. It was reported that the group had a squabble with Chinese leaders during their meeting, but this was denied by Mr. Allen Lee.
Six Chinese-language papers commented editorially on the visit, most of them in respect of Mr. Xi Zhongxun's reported remarks.
The HK Economic Journal read into Mr. Xi's statement the view that Beijing was beginning to realise that recent casual remarks by Chinese officials on the issue of HK were "unwise." The paper foresaw a more flexible approach to the problem and welcomed the fact that, despite their patriotism, the Chinese leaders were not hot-headed idealists. However, the paper said the statements could not really serve to restore public confidence, because we did not know whether the statements were really "state policies", and the public had experienced conflicting remarks from Chinese leaders many times before.
The paper suggested the only way to restore public confidence would be to sign a "provisional agreement on the HK issue" as soon as possible, regardless of whether or not negotiations were in progress. The agreement should assure retention of the existing judicial system, administration and currency, and the issue of HK passports to all those legally resident. This provisional agreement would help to instil public confidence during the negotiating period and could be nullified when an actual agreement was reached between the two governments.
The HK Daily News and the Express welcomed Mr. Xi's statement that China would handle the problem of HK "carefully", saying this would help to maintain public confidence. in the future of HK by quashing recent unfounded rumours and views. Oriental Daily News said we must not be disappointed that the group did not bring back any concrete solution to the problem of HK's future.
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