TNAG-2032-FCO40-2895-Visit-by-Douglas-Hurd--Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-and-Co-1990 — Page 172

HONG KONG: BACKGROUND BRIEF

Joint Declaration

BUSABO

92% of Hong Kong's land area is held on a 99 year lease that will expire on 1 July 1997, whereupon it will revert to Chinese

sovereignty. The remaining 3% could never be viable on its own. So

it has long been recognised that Hong Kong would be returned to

China in 1997. In 1982 when negotiations between Britain and China

began the fear was that. China would simply reabsorb Hong Kong and

that Hong Kong's distinct way of life would come to an end. What

Britain achieved in the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 was

agreement on very specific arrangements for Hong Kong's future for at least 50 years after 1997, as a separate entity with its own way

of life intact.

Under the agreement Hong Kong will have its own government, comprising Hong Kong people, not people brought in from China; the socialist system and socialist policies will not be imposed on Hong Kong from China; Hong Kong's capitalist system and way of life will

continue, with all its human rights and freedoms, its laws and its legal system, its own freely convertible currency, its financial

markets and its free port.

The Joint Declaration was welcomed in 1984 both in Hong Kong and

internationally, as the best achievable basis for a secure future for Hong Kong. The people of Hong Kong continue to regard the Joint

Declaration as a good agreement. It remains the cornerstone of our

policy.

Joint Liaison Group

The main forum for the implementation of the Joint Declaration is

the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group (JLG). Its terms of reference

are set out in Annex II of the Joint Declaration. The JLG must meet at least three times a year alternating between Peking, London and

Hong Kong. Since 1988, both the British and the Chinese representatives on the JLG have set up permanent offices in Hong Kong. The thirteenth plenary meeting of the Joint Liaison Group