Q:
have been saying, they have all considered that it was a
very good agreement, it was a good agreement for Hong Kong. Now that was the important part of the operation. There isn't joint rule. It is clearly stated in the Joint Declaration, in paragraph 4, that the Hong Kong Government should effectively govern Hong Kong until 30 June 1997 and that is in no way altered by this Memorandum of Understanding. What the Memorandum of Understanding does is provide certainty which the Hong Kong needed in order for them to proceed with their plan of building an airport. That is left entirely to the Hong Kong Government and rightly so to choose the site, go to tender, to produce all the documentation, to get on with it, without intereference whatsoever, so there is no question of a joint rule, but what there is, and quite rightly so, is that China has been fully consulted and their views have been taken into account just as they have understood the Hong Kong Government's views and the points that we made, but this is one of the major projects that is straddling 1997 and it quite right that their views should be taken into account. But that doesn't mean a joint running of Hong Kong or any sort of condominium. In fact what it has done is clarify the situation, and given certainly where there was uncertainty, and you now have Chinese blessing for this very important project and Chinese involvement because they will wish to be involved in the tendering process and that will bring in the private sector and so it is a very good agreement.
But if you look at the contents of the agreement, isn't it very clear that China has a say in the airport project, the sentence saying that the total amount of such
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Hong Kong dollar, then a common bill must have been reached before the
so isn't it very clear that China has a say in the financial arrangement of the new airport which is a matter of Hong Kong local affair?
A: Yes, and so it is.
There is nothing in the Memorandum of
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