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The Achievement
24. In the end, we achieved an agreement which was better than many had expected. On post-1997 arrangements, it is a good deal more detailed than most had dared hope for. It was often rumoured that Deng Xiaoping had set a limit of 10,000 Chinese characters on the text. It contains 15,300. Besides, its detail is gener- ally good detail, stipulating no change or little change and providing Hong Kong with a high degree of autonomy in all spheres except (probably) the executive. The only real disappointments are on nationality, where the Chinese refused to agree to trans- missibility after 30 June, 1997, of British nationality to the first generation of descendents of those who had been British Dependent Territory Citizens; on defence, where Deng Xiaoping had publicly committed China to sending troops to Hong Kong after 1997; and on government structures, where some of the provisions are vaguer than we would have wished. Big plus points are that the agreement is legally binding and that all of it will be stipulated in a Basic Law for the Hong Kong SAR which the Chinese will draw up between now and 1990. The regime provided for in the agreement is less than the ideal of continued British administration. But it has been judged acceptable by the Executive and Legislative Councils in Hong Kong and, on all the evidence so far, is likely to be judged acceptable by Parliament.
25. Could we have got a better agreement? Some have expressed the view that, if we had made a preemptive concession of
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