TNAG-1246-FCO40-1560-Press-reports-on-the-future-of-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 147

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The Chairman of the Meeting Point organising committee, Mr. Lau Nai-keung, said the group regarded the 1997 problem as a continuation of the present set of social, economic, political, legal and cultural problems. A meaningful answer could not be arrived at in a short time. What was really needed was an elected representative body to speak for the people of HK. Work should start now on relevant institutions through which the public's voice could be heard. The director of the People's Council on Public Housing Policy, Mr. Fung Kin-kee, said 1997 had aroused people's awareness to their national identity and the fact that they were Chinese. The HK and British governments realised that they could not control public opinion on the issue. Merchants who had returned from China recently after meeting Chinese officials had expressed optimism over the future; however, some had been quietly transferring their investments out of HK. The opinions of businessmen were most influential. Unless there was a proper and effective channel where the public could express their opinions it was pointless discussing the issue. The Asian Wall Street Journal carried a report of Mr. Walden's speech headlined 'Colony's people should assert views on 1997, ex-official says'. They stressed Mr. Walden's point that HK people should not accept assurances of the Chinese, British and HK governments that their interests would be protected in negotiations over the territory's future.

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PRESS LINES ON 1997:

Independent papers continued to make positive comments on British commitments to HK and the so-called HK-style prosperity. For the second successive week, the left-wing press did not respond. The HK Economic Journal said Britain had taken a hard line in safeguarding its interests in Gibraltar, the Falklands and Hong Kong. Such a tough stand showed that Britain stood by principle and respected history. The paper said despite the fact that it was a critic of both the British and HK Governments, it admired the ways the British handled matters and this was something for all to learn. In another editorial, the paper said the majority of people here believed that Britain would insist on the validity of the treaties and this might indicate that Britain would not pull out before 1997. The paper also noted that most well-to-do people still adopted a "wait-and-see" attitude because after all 1997 was not a pressing problem. It said HK people would not wish to migrate elsewhere while there was still hope that they could continue their lifestyle here. A columnist of the paper urged HK residents to continue to cast a "no confidence" vote on China's self-rule proposition and to support the existing systems here in order to soften China's stand on regaining sovereignty. He said the "HK people to administer HK" option indicated that Chinese leaders tacitly admitted that it would not be able to run this territory properly on

its own.

This was also a big concession to public opinion in HK. He said, should China insist on regaining sovereignty, it had to make more assurances which world invariably limit its scope of exercising rights in HK, or alternatively it would have to allow ritain to continue to play an important role here in a situation which would not make Chinese leaders lose face.

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