TNAG-2487-FCO40-3618-Future-relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-China-1992 — Page 66

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a great deal of interest for academics. There is much about them

that is unprecedented even in the long annals of British

diplomatic history. Apart from being very long and drawn out,

they have involved British acceptance of the vague and untested

Communist Chinese formula of "one country two systems" as a basis

for a legal commitment to uphold in the future" a high degree of

autonomy" for a former colony under the authority of a

Communist regime which has an unenviable record of continually

violating its constitutional norms. Although the contrast in the

negotiating styles of Britain and China has attracted some

attention, little has been devoted to the extraordinary

implications of the Joint Declaration signed between the two

sides in 1984. The two parties agreed in effect that in

consultation with China, Britain would have exclusive

responsibility in preparing Hong Kong for autonomy, while the

Chinese side would prepare a constitutional document to take

effect from the transfer of sovereignty on 1 July 1997. Although

it was understood that each side would take into account the

views of people in Hong Kong, at Chinese insistence, Hong Kong

representation was specifically excluded from the negotiating

process. Perhaps the most striking novelty of the negotiating

process was the undertaking of these two countries of such

different histories

histories and political systems to cooperate for

thirteen years about such delicate and uncertain matters as if

oblivious to the record of volatility of the Chinese Communist

regime and to the possibilities of radical change in the external

international environment.