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définitely needs a new airport. Now China have agreed that. They have announced that again today.
They have said they know that Hong Kong needs a new airport. It is now a question of agreeing the details. We want to pursue that as quickly as possible and so do Hong Kong, so do China.
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China is said to be asking for more concessions though now. Its widened the area of debate over the airport, it's now a question of control of Hong Kong in the run up to 1997. Just how far is Britain prepared to go to get that airport for Hong Kong?
Well the Hong Kong government put forward the suggestion of the airport but as to the control of Hong Kong that's another area where we agreed with China. It's there in the Joint Declaration. Britain should be the effective sovereign power, Hong Kong government should have effective control up until 30 June 1997. China doesn't want a Hong Kong that isn't effectively run during this period. Hong Kong is a very important financial centre. It's important to China because of the amount of exports that go through Hong Kong and the amount of foreign exchange that comes in. They don't want to see that ineffectively
governed.
We agreed on that.
So can you put to rest these rumours that the airport project might be scrapped?
What I'm saying is that there are certainly still difficulties to be overcome. There are points on which
we disagree but you can only resolve those by negotiation. You don't want to stand off. And anyway nobody wants to isolate China. China has about a fifth of the world's population, it is a member of the P5, don't drive it into a corner, continue to talk and resolve the problem.
oh dear
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