To the Chinese side, the political system of the territory
after 1997 should be advantageous to the implementation of the "one country, two system" concept and China's modernization programme. China does not wish to see Hong Kong's political system evolve into a "political entity independent of the mother country", and neither does it want this political entity to interfere with and affect the political situation of China to the detriment of the socialist system. To be more practical, one can say that the Hong Kong model is a likely political basis for the future Chinese Communist Party-Kuomintang peaceful talks on the unification of China. If Hong Kong goes too far in implementing its "autonomy" so that only the "two systems" principle but not the "one country" principle is adhered to, the tasa of resolving the Taiwan issue by peaceful means will become more complicated. For this reason, Beijing cannot but consider the influence of Hong Kong's political reforms on its talks with Taiwan. The terms for Taiwan can allow greater leniency than those for Hong kong. Yet, if Hong Kong deviates a long way from the Sino-British Joint Declaration, there will be no room for beijing to exercise "greater leniency". Beijing must, therefore, uphold the Joint Declaration as
the bottom line.
I
It is generally believed that in order to gain benefits not provided for in the Joint Declaration, some people on the British side are trying their best to exploit the "anti-communist mentality" in a bid to lead Hong kong people to establish a political system which "guarantees a high degree of autonomy and independence of the control of the (Chinese) Central Government".
The Green Paper on the Further Development of Representative Government in Hong Kong disclosed that one of the main aims of its proposals is "to develop progressively a system of Government the authority for which is firmly rooted in Hong Kong, which is able to represent authoritatively the views of the people of Hong Kong, and which is more directly accountable to the people of Hong kong".
/Nevertheless,.....
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