point to keep in mind is not the existence of arrangements for rendition or transfer but the need to ensure that there are appropriate limits on jurisdiction and safeguards on rendition and transfer, and in this respect we are, of course, mindful of the kind of provisions that are made in the Fugitive Offenders' Act and in the 1984 Act.
Nor do I think it reasonable to ask for an assurance, in the terms of your letter, that the PRC advise us that acts of criminality in the territory of Hong Kong are not deemed to be acts within the territory of the PRC. Hong Kong will be part of the territory of the PRC. What I can do, however, is to repeat again that Hong Kong will have its own legal and judicial system which will be a separate legal and judicial system from that in effect in the rest of the PRC. The Joint Declaration provides for this and that the policies set out in the Joint Declaration as elaborated in its Annex I will be stipulated in the Basic Law. These provisions make clear the general proposition that territorial jurisdiction of the mainland law will stop at the border of the Hong Kong SAR. Thus, as is the case with England and Scotland within the United Kingdom there will be two separate jurisdictions within the territory of the PRC, that of Hong Kong and that of the mainland. (Indeed there may be more than two jurisdictions if the Basic Law for Macao follows the Basic Law being drafted for Hong Kong).
You also refer to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It is certainly the case that the International Covenant does not of its own force provide particular safeguards. But the Joint Declaration, which, I repeat, is an international agreement between ourselves and the Chinese, provides that the provisions of that Covenant as applied to Hong Kong shall remain in force. There is, therefore, the same international obligation on the Chinese to ensure that, inter alia, article 15 of the International Covenant will continue to have effect in relation to Hong Kong as there is in respect of the other arrangements agreed in the Joint Declaration.
Finally, you ask for an assurance that we have negotiated particular arrangements with the Chinese. have not yet done so. It will be necessary for us to
We
/negotiate
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