CONFIDENTIAL
HONG KONG AGREEMENT: MASTER LIST OF NOTES FOR SUPPLEMENTARIES
Ι GENERAL QUESTIONS
CONDEMNING FIVE AND A HALF MILLION PEOPLE TO LIVE UNDER COMMUN I SM
1. No. Although the Hong Kong SAR will be under Chinese sovereignty, the agreement makes quite clear that the socialist system and policies of the rest of China will not be practised
there, and that Hong Kong's system and lifestyle will remain
unchanged for 50 years.
PARALLELS WITH YALTA/THE ANSCHLUSS/ENFORCED REPATRIATIONS TO SOVIET
UNION AFTER WORLD WAR II
2. Absolutely no parallel.
In the case of Hong Kong the two
Governments concerned have concluded a binding international agreement providing that Hong Kong's economic system and lifestyle
will remain unchanged for 50 years.
PARALLELS WITH FALKLANDS/GIBRALTAR
3.
The circumstances are not the same. Hong Kong is sui generis in
that 92 percent of the territory is covered by a lease with a fixed expiry date.
IF VIEWS OF FALKLAND ISLANDERS CAN BE DESCRIBED AS PARAMOUNT, WHY
NOT THOSE OF HONG KONG PEOPLE?
4.
Because of the different constitutional and historical circumstances of the two dependent territories, a direct parallel cannot be drawn. The New Territories will revert to China on 1 July
1997,, and in
and in practice the choice is between reversion of the whole territory under agreed arrangements and reversion without arrangements. This choice has been clearly explained to the Hong Kong people and they have commented against this background, on the
overall acceptability of the agreement.
CONFIDENTIAL
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