TNAG-2487-FCO40-3618-Future-relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-China-1992 — Page 63

1

TEN YEARS OF SINO-BRITISH NEGOTIATIONS OVER HONG KONG: PROBLEMS

AND PROSPECTS.1

BY MICHAEL YAHUDA

00011

September 1992 marked the tenth anniversary since formal

negotiations first began between Britain and China over the

future of Hong Kong. Despite having reached various agreements

that both sides proclaim to be highly satisfactory, the

negotiations themselves seem to have been marked all along by

distrust and by correct rather than friendly relations between

the two parties. Each side perceives the other with mistrust: The

Chinese suspect a British design to run away with the surplus

capital of Hong Kong and to leave the territory in disarray;

whereas the British perceive the Chinese leaders as ill- informed

and their negotiators as like street fighters. The negotiations

have also given rise to several paradoxes: Their success is

crucial to China, but of no consequence to Britain except for the

possible damaging effects if they were to fail. But the continued

evolution of Hong Kong as a major contributor to China's economic

modernization is of extreme importance especially to Deng

Xiaoping's strategy of retaining Communist power and accelerating

the country's economic development. His policy of "one country

1The research and interviewing on which this article is based was made possible by a grant from the Nuffield Foundation.

44A