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Recently the general view of the community has
moved in favour of speeding up somewhat the speed of
change. There have also been increasing signs of a
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will which was lacking before -
to reach a
community consensus stretching across the different political groups so that there is a common Hong Kong view to put to those drafting the Basic Law which will lay down the details of Hong Kong's political structure after 1997, I welcome this attempt to seek a common view. It will help the Basic Law drafters. It will also help us in deciding on the right speed of development in the years immediately ahead.
In the immediate aftermath of June 4, there were some in the international community who called for the scrapping or renegotiation of the Joint Declaration. They ignore the essential facts of history and geography. In 1997 the lease for 92% of the territory expires. The remainder, by itself is not a viable economic entity.
The Joint Declaration is an international
agreement freely entered into by two sovereign states to deal with the problem of the ending of a lease. It is legally binding and has been deposited with the United Nations. Unilateral revocation of that
agreement would have made no sense at all, It would
leave the people of Hong Kong with nothing.
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