TNAG-2047-FCO40-2917-Visits-by-staff-of-the-Department-of-Trade-and-Industry-to-H-1990 — Page 162

HONG KONG BACKGROUND BRIEF/

HONG KONG/CHINA: 1997

JOINT DECLARATION

1. 92% of Hong Kong's land area will revert to Chinese

sovereignty on expiry of a 99 year lease on 1 July 1997.

The remaining 8% could never be viable on its own. So it

has long been recognised that Hong Kong would be returned to

China in 1997. It was feared 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 specific

arrangements for Hong Kong's future for at least 50 years

after 1997, Hong Kong is to remain as a separate entity with its own way of life intact. 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.

JOINT LIAISON GROUP

2.

The main forum for implementation of the Joint

Declaration and for ensuring a smooth transfer of

sovereignty is the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group (JLG).

The JLG has three plenaries a year rotating between London,

Peking and Hong Kong, and there are frequent informal

contacts between the British and Chinese JLG Offices in Hong Kong at other times. The British side postponed the thirteenth plenary of the Joint Liaison Group (scheduled for

July 1989) following the Tiananmen Square incident. At

British initiative, it was reinstated in September 1989.

Subsequent meetings of the JLG took place in Hong Kong from

in December 1989 and in Peking in April 1990. Subjects

currently on the agenda include the localisation of laws,

international rights and obligations, the establishment of a

Court of Final Appeal and future arrangements for the

JONAEN/1