TNAG-1845-FCO40-2620-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 61

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE

TAKE BEFORE THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

WEDNESDAY 22 MARCH 1989

Members present:

Mr David Howell, in the Chair

Mr Michael Jopling

Mr Ivan Lawrence

Mr Jim Lester

Mr Ted Rowlands

Mr Peter Shore

Mr Ian Taylor

Mr Peter Temple-Morris Mr Bowen Wells

Mr Michael Welsh

PROGRESS IN IMPLEMENTING THE SINO-BRITISH JOINT DECLARATION OF 1984 ON HONG KONG (HK18)

Memorandum submitted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

I. BACKGROUND TO THE NEGOTIATION OF THE JOINT DECLARATION

1. Under the Treaty of Nanking (1842) and the Convention of Peking (1860), Hong Kong Island, the southern part of the Kowloon Peninsula and Stonecutters Island were ceded to Britain in perpetuity. The rest of the territory of Hong Kong (comprising 92 per cent of the total land area) was leased to Britain for 99 years from 1 July 1898 under a further Convention signed in Peking in that year. This leased area, consisting of the area north of Kowloon up to the Shenzhen River and 235 adjacent islands, is known as the New Territories.

2. The Chinese Government has consistently taken the view that the whole of Hong Kong is Chinese territory. For many years its position was that the treaties relating to Hong Kong were unequal ones left over from history; that the question should be settled peacefully through negotiation when the time was ripe; and that pending a settlement the status quo should be maintained. It made it clear that in its view the settlement of the question of Hong Kong was a matter of China's sovereign right.

3. The expiry of the New Territories' lease on 30 June 1997 made it necessary to tackle the question of the future as soon as possible after China's emergence from the Cultural Revolution. It was clear that the remaining 8 per cent of Hong Kong's land area would not be viable without the New Territories, which contain most of the territory's agriculture and industry, its power stations, and its airport and container port. Moreover, by the late 1970s, concern about Hong Kong's future, both locally and amongst foreign investors, began to grow. The inability of the Hong Kong Government to grant new land leases in the New Territories extending beyond 1997 was a particular problem which was becoming progressively more serious. Simply to have ignored the 1997 deadline was not an option: the legal instrument under which the New Territories was governed was due to expire in 1997; and uncertainty as to what would happen thereafter would have led to an erosion of confidence as the reality of Hong Kong's uncertain future became closer and clearer.

4. Against this background, the British Government resolved to remove the uncertainty imposed by the 1997 deadline. The visit of the Prime Minister to China in 1982 provided an appropriate opportunity to open discussions with the Chinese Government about Hong Kong's future. As a result of that visit, the two sides agreed that talks would begin "with the common aim of maintaining the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong",

II. THE NEGOTIATION OF THe Joint DeclARATION

5. The negotiations lasted two years, from September 1982 to September 1984, when the documents comprising the Agreement were initialled. The negotiations fell into two phases: an initial phase, conducted through the British Embassy in Peking; and a second phase of formal talks, which began in July 1983 and consisted of 22 rounds of negotiations over 14 months, supplemented by informal contacts, and in the final four months by full-time discussion of draft texts tabled by the two sides. The Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe, was closely involved at every stage in the second phase of the talks and intervened personally at several important points in the negotiations.

6. The negotiations were complex and difficult. The British side initially argued hard for the retention of British administration in Hong Kong after 1997 as the surest way of maintaining the prosperity and stability of the territory. After protracted discussion, however, it became clear that the continuation of

The cost of printing and publishing these Minutes of Evidence is estimated by Her Majesty's Stationery Office at