IPU SPRING CONFERENCE, PYONGYANG 1991
BRIEF NO
: HONG KONG
Joint Declaration
30
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LARCENARY
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Watz ail's C
1.
92% of Hong Kong's land area is held on a 99 year lease that will expire on 1 July 1997, whereupon it will revert to
Chinese sovereignty. The remaining 8% could never be viable
on its own. So it has long been recognised that Hong Kong
would be returned to China in 1997. In 1982 when
negotiations between Britain and China began, the fear was
that China would simply reabsorb Hong Kong and that Hong
Kong's distinct way of life would come to an end. What
Britain achieved in the Sino-British Joint Declaration of
1984 was agreement on very specific arrangements for Hong
Kong's future for at least 50 years after 1997, as a separate entity with its own way of life intact.
2. Under the agreement Hong Kong will have its own
government, comprising Hong Kong people, not people brought
in from China; the socialist system and socialist policies
will not be imposed on Hong Kong from China; Hong Kong's
capitalist system and way of life will continue, with all
its human rights and freedoms, its laws and its legal
system, its own freely convertible currency, its financial
markets and its free port.
3. The Joint Declaration was welcomed in 1984 both in Hong
Kong and internationally, as the best achieveable basis for
a secure future for Hong Kong. Although confidence in Hong
Kong was seriously shaken by the events of June 1989 in
China, most people in Hong Kong continue to regard the Joint
Declaration as a good agreement. It remains the cornerstone of our policy.
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