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Some people still propose policies for Hong Kong which would only make sense if we could tow the colony into mid-Pacific and
start again. Since that is nonsense, the concept embodied in the Joint Declaration of one country with two systems capitalist Hong Kong and communist mainland - offers the best way forward. We must
do all we can to make it work.
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This will be hard, and the task has been made more difficult by last year's tragic events in Tiananmen Square. On the one hand, the leadership in Peking now see Hong Kong as a threat - a haven for "counter-revolutionaries" seeking to topple the regime.
On the
other hand, if people in Hong Kong fear that after Tiananmen they can no longer trust China to honour her promises about the territory's future. There is a considerable danger that the two sets of suspicion will fuel each other.
All this means that the British Government has to be active not
passive. It is not an option just to close our eyes and wait for
the clock to tick on until 1997.
We wish nothing but well to the people of China. It is for
them and not for us to work out their system of government. We have
no wish either to interfere or to encourage interference by others.
Our continuing responsibilities are to Hong Kong. The British people, Parliament and Government have to take decisions in the interests of the people of Hong Kong to sustain prosperity and to
make possible the ideal of one country, two systems promised in the
Joint Declaration. Between now and 1997 we shall face a whole
series of difficult decisions about Hong Kong.
For now, three
issues are to the fore.
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