TNAG-2714-FCO40-3920-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1993 — Page 17

14-JUL-1993 14:37

Gallagher

0491 579838

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TRANSCRIPT

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MR ALASTAIR GOODLAD

M

SELECT COMMITTEE

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14 JULY 93

14

It

The Chinese leaders have consistently expressed their commitment

to the Joint Declaration and their commitment to abide by it.

is clearly in China's interests, as I said earlier, that the

stability and prosperity of Hong Kong should be preserved. The

Joint Declaration also provided for intensified consultation

between China and Britain in the run-up to 1997 and it is natural

and inevitable that we should discuss a very wide range of

detailed matters affecting Hong Kong in the Joint Liaison Group.

So in terms of the governability of Hong Kong we regard increased

consultations with China as a necessary part of the process.

So I do not myself see any reason to fear that Hong Kong would, in

your words, become ungovernable, far from it, I think that we have

a joint determination with the government of the People's Republic

and the Hong Kong government to see that matters are ordered

sensibly.

MR JOPLING:

As the committee embarks on this enquiry I think that it would be

helpful to all of us just to have your view on how we got into the

present difficulties with the FRC. And I would like to take you

back to the report that this committee wrote after our previous

visit, and I read just two sentences from it: "Our discussions in

Beijing, which were held in April 1989, before the events of Tiananmen Square, led us to believe that the Chinese government had no objection to faster progress, that is with the move towards democracy. The Chinese officials to whom we spoke emphasised that