TNAG-1438-FCO40-1922-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 78

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autonomy. My opinion is that if we hold onto our economic autonomy and power, the political autonomy will take care of itself. I don't want to sound like General Motors, but in Hong Kong it has been proved over the last thirty years that what is good for business is good for Hong Kong. My message therefore to all those who are now attempting to put up the bamboo scaffolding to build our future autonomy must be to make this the framework for further and larger Hong Kong business successes which will be the only guarantee we can have for real autonomy within the PRC after 1997.

A successful economy must be based on reality. And let me restate the realities: The PRC is many times larger than the United Kingdom. Hong Kong is a pimple on China's body politic. Neither the UK nor Hong Kong could realistically fight China, and even if it were possible for Hong Kong or the UK to fight China, such a fight would destroy what Hong Kong stands for and leave it a shell. So however much any of us may want an independent Hong Kong, or however much any of us may feel uncomfortable about what is going to happen in 1997, we have to accept the reality that the Agreement between the UK and the PRC for the handover of Hong Kong in 1997 gave us the best deal possible. Now we must make sure that when we are handed over we are still as important to China as we are now and become the yeast to make China's bread. So however much it goes against my grain to say so, I must say that what we have to do now is to preserve the status quo as far as possible, not to rock the boat, and to make sure that our economic freedom, our economic base, our economic success is preserved and improved upon. this cannot be achieved by giving up some of our personal freedoms, because our freedoms are the base of our economic

success.

But

There is a message here for those in power in Beijing and our friends in Xinhua: It is even more important that YOU don't rock the boat because every time any of you make a statement which is not entirely in line with the expectations Hong Kong people have as to how the 1997 agreement should be applied, you destroy a little of Hong Kong. More people will leave, and what is even worse, more people will acquire Samson's deathwish and will try to pull down the successful edifice we have built here, simply so that those in China who do not understand our