1
th
མ་པ་
14 June 1989]
[Mr Jopling Contd]
THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
RT HON SIR GEOFFREY HOWE, QC, MP, Mr R McLaren and MR A PAUL
structure has been immensely and severely shaken by all that has happened in recent weeks. If one comes back to the underlying reality, Hong Kong in substance as to over 95 per cent of it is due to revert to China in 1997 when the lease expires and that reversion takes place whether þetter or worse, with or without the Joint Declaration or something like it. I myself am absolutely sure that we need to hang on to that which we have. The Joint Declar- ation was the result of a huge amount of work by people on both sides to try and lay a foundation of confidence for the future. I am quite sure we are better off with it than without it. You ask whether we should now seek to replace it with something else or change it. Again I would be very reluctant to accept that invitation because, as you know very well, if one starts trying to unstitch or unpick a very complex cameluded document of that kind, then two can play at the same game and I think we have got there a very solid, good agreement. If I may say so, I slightly bridle-though it does not surprise
me-at pictures of myself in Chamberlainesque mode brandishing a piece of paper conjured out of somebody's back pocket at Berchtesgarten, when you compare that with the huge investment of effort `and work and the full support of people and representatives of Hong Kong over many years. We all understood the uncertainties of that process. I remember most vividly the statement made by A Senior filember of the delegation when I came back from my third visit to Peking when he said in a small gathering thereafter that we had achieved the breakthrough on the Joint Liaison Group, and I believe we can in all conscience commend this to the people of Hong Kong" and it was/recommended. It has been the foundation of the future and what one does beyond that is to look for ways of restoring its reality, its credibility, its confidence, and therefore you are asking me the right questions about what contact there has been. I have to say in Peking, since the events in Tiananmen Square, there has been no contact on this topic with the Chinese Government. There has been contact, of course, by myself with the Charge in London; there has been contact between the Governor in Hong Kong and the Director of the New China News Agency underlining the crucial importance of the Joint Declaration, and obviously the practical stages of managing the Joint Declaration have to be con- sidered from here on. I am not seeking to set aside or depart from what is in prospect, but clearly we have to live as it were from day to day in reconstructing the contact. Clearly people in Hong Kong are asking-and they are entitled to ask- can more be done in the fortification of the Joint Declaration either in the way in which it is translated into the Basic Law when we come back to that process, if we do, which we all hope we do, or in other respects? But I am sure we start with the Joint Declaration as the basis and we shall be taking every opportunity of emphasising to the authorities in Peking the overwhelming import- ance we attach to the international obligations there and taking every opportunity of emphasising that it must be in the medium-term and long-term
353
[Continued
interests of China itself to stand by that declar- ation.
951. Thank you. As a comment, you are per- fectly entitled to bridle at some of the things which have been said, I support you in that. But could you just tell us what is the present position of the Hong Kong since last year, especially with regard Joint Liaison Group which, of course, is based in
to the Chinese members of that group? I gather there was likely or was intended to have been a meeting of the JLG next month in London. What moment? What are the prospects for that meeting? sort of contact are we having in Hong Kong at the
(Sir Geoffrey Howe) The Joint Liaison Group certainly remains an important part of the arrangements for managing the future, not least because under the Agreement it remains in exist- ence beyond 1997, so we must all share the hope that that can be put into working order as soon as possible. But in practical terms that is not someting that can happen for the time being. The meeting scheduled to have taken place in London on 18 July I think clearly will have to be postponed, but we are not yet in a position to say when and in what circumstances it would be right to try and put it back on the agenda. We shall certainly be emphasising to the Chinese side that we intend to ahd hope they will do the same. As I say, there are stick to our obligations under the Joint Declaration
contacts at the moment taking place in Hong Kong.
(Mr McLaren) Very informally in Hong Kong there is some contact between the two offices, but done in present circumstances. no substantive business is being done or could be
Mr Taylor
952. Foreign Secretary, of course we will have to take up again the conversation with the Chinese Government over the fulfilling of the Joint Decla- ratisn, but could we perhaps have a stronger state- ment than you have yet given to us that the attitude which we would have to the Government in Beijing would be a good deal more cautious than perhaps it has been in the past? You used the phrase earlier about getting the message through to them about the need for normality until sanity returns. I would argue that there are very clear signs that the Comunist system in China makes sanity very difficult. We have seen the 100 flowers movement in 1957; we saw the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s, and further upheavals in 1976. I think that that sort of problem is inherent in the Chinese system and I would at least ask that that is taken into account in any future dealings rather than instructing our diplomats to behave as if dealing with a normal government.
(Sir Geoffrey Howe) I do not think anyone is ever more conscious of the eccentricities and worse of governments with which they are dealing than those who have to deal with them from day to day. Certainly nobody has been more conscious of the hazardous foundations on which we have sought to build in relation to China than I have. But one must seek to make the best of what one is able to
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.