TNAG-1850-FCO40-2625-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 73

1989-06-12 17:34 COI RADIO TECH SERVICES.

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TRANSCRIPT B: SELECT COMMITTEE ON HONG KONG - 12 JUNE 1989

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MR.

IVAN LAWRENCE;

Well there are doubts about it and this Committee

was asked about it by those having doubts about it when

they were in Hong Kong.

SIR DAVID WILSON:

Article 157, as i read it, has that interpretation

attached to it.

MR. JIM LESTER:

Is not one of the ironies of the one country/two

systems focussed on the fifth paragraph of the Joint Declaration when it says that the current social and economic systems in Hong Kong will remain unchanged and so will the lifestyle; rights and freedoms, including those

of the person, of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association of travel, of movement, of correspondence, of strike, of choice of occupation etc. will be ensured by law in the Hong Kong Administrative Region?

Is that not

a very difficult situation to muitain when one thinks of the status of Hong Kong citizens in China, especially in view of the two recent arrests in spite of the fact that British officials were with the people concerned?