Chairman:
If the fears are so great of democracy as Sir Percy has suggested, if they look upon LegCo as simply an advisory body, if they are prepared as it were to react in such a hostile way to the very modest proposal put forward by Governor Patten, if such a reaction might also involve undermining the independent judiciary, how can Sir Percy have confidence that the Chinese commitment to a movement, a gradual movement towards democracy, is worth anything at all?
Sir Percy Cradock: It is
is worth a great deal, Mr Chairman, although it was extracted with great pain and trial from the Chinese. Fortunately it was embodied in an agreement in their own Basic Law, and their record to date has been that they have not broken any bit of the Joint Declaration. I believe that they will go ahead and honour the Basic Law and the political settlement as it was up to 1990.
So I would entirely disagree that because it is difficult to get these commitments out of the Chinese, that they are therefore valueless. The whole business of extracting guarantees for Hong Kong from China has been like having one's front teeth pulled out, let's face it. But they are there, they are in black and white, and their record to date is that they will honour it.
If, on the other hand, we act unilaterally, as I said before we give them an excuse for going off on their own. I am not saying they will; I believe that even in the worst case they will try to adhere to the Joint Declaration as they understand it, and to the Basic Law but I repeat, as they understand it. Clearly from their threats they are going to tinker with various bits of the apparatus, if we give them the excuse for doing so. It is all the more reason why I say that we should not give them this pretext.
Mr Rowlands: I think, Sir Percy, I took your words down correctly, but I think you said you are "not saying that the Chinese are politically or legally justified in their present position", since when it seems to me
me that you have actually continually argued that they are legally and politically justified. Can we just get it clear from you, with a straight-
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