TNAG-2790-FCO40-4029-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1993 — Page 41

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The Other Hong Kong Report 1993

made strong recommendations on how to redress the lack of progress in political development, her government would have moved swiftly and decisively to honour the undertakings given by the government to Parlia- ment on constitutional changes in Hong Kong in the transitional period. After all, if those undertakings had not been given during the Parliamentary debates on the Joint Declaration in 1984, and at the time of the passing of the Hong Kong Bill, in January 1985, Parliament would not have given its consent to the government's unprecedented proposal to deny the people of Hong Kong the right of self-determination and hand them over involun- tarily to a communist state.

Britain's Moral Imperative

To put it in another way, if the Chinese government would not countenance the grant of the right of self-determination to the people of Hong Kong and the British people would not allow the British government to grant Hong Kong people the option of right of abode in the United Kingdom, then the Thatcher government was obliged to help them develop a system of govern- ment, sufficiently democratic and autonomous, to ensure that their free lifestyle would not be put in jeopardy after 1997. This, after all, was the quintessence of Mrs. Thatcher's vow, at the time of her visit to Hong Kong in September 1982, after opening discussions with Deng Xiaoping in Bei- jing on the future of Hong Kong.

Speaking at a press conference in the Legislative Council Chamber on 27 September, the British Prime Minister was adamant on the matter:

I have been at pains to stress that the British Government has a clear responsibility for the people of Hong Kong. As leader of that Government, what matters to me is that we discharge our moral duty to them.

Questioned by reporter Jesse Wong of the Asian Wall Street Journal about Britain's interests, aside from the moral obligation, Mrs. Thatcher's tart response reflected the strength of her personal convictions:

Well, you say "aside from the moral obligation—it's quite a big aside!” I mean, that is our main commitment and responsibility and that's what comes first with

US.

Still No New Initiative

However, there is nothing in the brief official communiqués of the nine