PRESS RELEASE
No.120
HKC040/4
4. MAI 1990
FOREIGN & (33 COMMONWEALTH
OFFICE
Monday 21 May 1990
1230
ра
Future General. f245
HONG KONG: UNIQUE SOLUTIONS TO A UNIQUE PROBLEM
In a speech tonight the Hon Francis Maude MP, Minister of state for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, outlined just how unique the negotiation of the internationally-binding Joint Declaration was, and the work that has been undertaken since to ensure that Hong Kong's way of life will not change for a minimum of 50 years after 1997. He said:
"In every sense, there has never been another colony like Hong Kong. Because of its extraordinary historical background, it has always been inevitable in practical terms that on the 1st of July 1997 it would revert to Chinese sovereignty. And it is difficult to imagine a more dramatic contrast between Hong Kong's driving, pulsing economy, the quintessence of capitalism and its socialist counterpart on the mainland. For years, the fear was that when the handover took place, China would simply absorb Hong Kong, and that extraordinary chemistry that has made Hong Kong uniquely exhilarating would simply dissolve.
It was our spectacular achievement to reach agreement in the Joint Declaration for Hong Kong's way of life to survive unchanged for 50 years after 1997. We all know that the agreement provides for Hong Kong to have a high degree of autonomy, with its existing social and economic systems, its laws and its basic freedoms intact.
But of course there have been plenty of Jeremiahs to deride these paper guarantees. I have two answers for them. The first is that the Joint Declaration is a binding international agreement, registered at the United Nations. The People's Republic of China has never broken such an international agreement. In the last year, China's leadership have been at pains to assert that their policy towards Hong Kong remains unaltered, and have consistently reaffirmed their commitment to the Joint Declaration and to the concept of "one country, two systems".
News Department,
Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Downing Street (West), S.W.1. 01-270-3100
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