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6.
AIM
The aim of this paper is to review the Hong Kong Garrison Outline
Withdrawal Plan (CDS 7/87) as amended by the 1989 Review, with a view to recommending appropriate amendments to force level reductions or timescales currently planned in the light of changed circumstances
since CDS 7/87 was first published.
PART ONE
•
THE POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE
The Joint Declaration.
1.
**
and
. The
The Sino-British Joint Declaration provides that until 30 June
1997 the Government of the United Kingdom is "responsible for the
administration of Hong Kong with
Kong with the object of maintaining
preserving its economic prosperity and social stability.. Government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) is to "give its co-
operation in this connection". After 30 June 1997, the Government of
the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) will become responsible for the maintenance of law and order; any military forces
which the PRC station in
in Hong Kong will be for
be for the purposes of
external defence and "shall not interfere in the internal affairs of
the Hong Kong Special Administative Region". The political interests of all three governments concerned Her Majesty's, the PRC's and Hong
Kong's - I are therefore involved in the nature and rate of the run-down
of the British Garrison in Hong Kong.
8.
The Joint Declaration provides not only for the SAR Government to be responsible for the maintenance of law and order but also for it to be autonomous in all matters except external defence and foreign
affairs. Thus the continuation of its current capitalist system, as
well as
as existing individual and corporate rights and freedoms, is guaranteed in a document which is itself an international treaty and
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