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PASTOR GENERA�
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S REPORT, DECEMBER 21, 1984
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leader Deng Xiaoping, who considers the reunification of Hong
Kong with China his crowning achievement••••
Thatcher, who is on a six-day global tour that will include a
meeting with President Reagan in Washington, earlier met for an
hour with Communist Party Chief Hu Yaobang, who described the
signing as a "red letter day."••. Thatcher replied she was sur
prised an agreement on Hong Kong could be reached after only two
years of negotiations. "I never thought we should be able to
achieve it in the two years that Chairman Deng Xiaoping set for
us because there was so much to be done in detail," she said.
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I'm very pleased that the people of Hong Kong have themselves
accepted the agreement."
In an earlier meeting, Premier Zhao Ziyang assured Thatcher that
China would honor the Hong Kong accord "in every respect." .•• He
told Thatcher the concept of "one country, two systems"--allowing
Hong Kong to retain its capitalist lifestyle for the first 50
years of communist rule--was the result of "lengthy thought and
consideration by the Chinese government."
An ASSOCIATED PRESS dispatch of the same date added the following comments:
Although the takeover terms generally have been welcomed, many in
Hong Kong question China's ability to deliver on its promises in
view of the tumultuous 1966-76 Cultural Revolution and other po
litical upheavals since Communist rule began in 1949.
But Zhao assured the British leader: "In the years to come, China
will implement this agreement in every respect. China will do so
and I am convinced the British side will also do so•••• We always
mean what we say. What we say to the world counts and we have al
ways adhered to the agreements we have signed internationally."
z
hao termed the pact
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a major event in modern world history,
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conducive to peace in Asia and the world and opening a new chap
ter in Chinese-British relations. He praised Mrs. Thatcher's
"vision and statesmanship," and accepted an invitation to visit
Britain next summer. British officials, meanwhile, said Queen
Elizabeth.!!. is likely to visit China in the second half of 1986.
She would be the first British monarch to travel to the world's
most populous country.
Zinhua [China's official news agency] quoted Mrs. Thatcher, who
arrived late Tuesday for a 36-hour stay before flying to Hong
Kong and Washington, as telling Zhao: "I thought it was of ex
treme importance to come even for a short visit because it is
such a great occasion and a historic occasion."
To a great degree, Britain had no choice but to seek the best deal it could
regarding Hong Kong. Whereas the heart of the colony's area (Hong Kong is
land and Kowloon across the harbor) were acquired by cession from China in
1841, the colony quickly outgrew itself. Additional, much greater terri
tory was acquired under terms of a 99-year lease in 1898. This terminates
in 1997 and Peking has long said it would never renew it. The original Hong
Kong without the "New Territories" section, where so many of the residents
live and where new industrial growth has gone, simply would not be viable.