TNAG-2714-FCO40-3920-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1993 — Page 153

FCO/FAC/3/93

SELECT COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Memorandum by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

HONG KONG

1. In response to a request from the Foreign Affairs Committee, this paper updates the Government's observations (Cm 927 of December 1989 and Cm 1082 of May 1990) on the Committee's Report on Hong Kong in 1989 (HC 289-1).

2.

Detailed accounts of developments in Hong Kong are contained in the Government's Annual Reports to Parliament on Hong Kong: the 1992 Report was published in March 1993 (Cm 2156).

This paper therefore concentrates on the main policy developments in the areas covered by the Committee's 1989 Report:

(i) The Joint Declaration and the Basic Law, including

the question of human rights;

(ii)

Actions within Hong Kong, particularly progress towards representative government; and the airport and related infrastructure projects;

(iii) British interests in Hong Kong, particularly

nationality issues, and the future British Consulate-General in Hong Kong;

(iv) Vietnamese Migrants

THE JOINT DECLARATION AND THE BASIC LAW

3. The Committee recommended in 1989 that the Joint Declaration should be maintained as providing the best and surest treaty base for the future of Hong Kong. The Government welcomed this recommendation in 1989, and the Joint Declaration remains the

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