TNAG-2619-FCO40-3810-Official-visits-from-the-UK-to-Hong-Kong-1992 — Page 93

VISIT BY MINISTER OF TRADE TO HONG KONG, 23-26 JULY 1992

HONG KONG

нко 26/12 -

Joint Declaration

1.

92% of Hong Kong's land area is held on a 99 year lease

due to expire on 1 July 1997, whereupon it will revert to Chinese sovereignty. The remaining 8% is not viable on its own without Chinese cooperation. By the early 1980s there was increasing concern among investors in Hong Kong about

the territory's future after 1997. One possibility was that

China would reabsorb Hong Kong and that Hong Kong's distinct

way of life would come to an end. Britain and China opened negotiations which led to the Sino-British Joint Declaration

of 1984. This laid down detailed and binding arrangements

for Hong Kong's future: for at least 50 years after 1997, Hong Kong is to remain as a separate entity with its own way of life unchanged.

2.

Hong Kong's capitalist and all its human

Under the Agreement, Hong Kong will have its own

Government, composed of Hong Kong people, not people brought

in from China. The socialist system and socialist policies will not be practised in Hong Kong. system and way of life will continue rights and freedoms, its laws and its legal system, its own

freely convertible currency, its financial markets and its

free port will remain intact.

3.

The Joint Declaration was welcomed in 1984, both in

Hong Kong and internationally, as the best achievable basis

for a secure future for Hong Kong. The people of Hong Kong continue to regard the Joint Declaration as a good agreement. It remains the cornerstone of our policy.

JH4ABS/1

JRB