Mrs Thatcher stepped into diplomatic history in Peking yesterday when she signed an unprecedented deal with Communist China which will hand it sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997 while preserving the colony╒s capitalist way of life. Nothing quite like it has ever happened before.
╥One country, two systems╙ is the term being used to describe the basis of the deal carefully negotiated between Britain and China over the past two years and finalised yesterday amid the pop of champagne corks and the crash of a 19-gun salute.
The rapport was heightened by the announcement that an invitation has been extended by China to the Queen to visit their country. The offer has been accepted, and
a date some time in 1986 seems probable.
If doubts remain about whether China╒s ageing leaders can ensure delivery of their side of the Hong Kong bargain they were kept firmly under the table yesterday. Both sides declared their absolute commitment to carrying out the letter of the agreement to its last comma.
But doubts remain, understandably in the colony itself, and last night Mrs Thatcher indignantly rejected the accusation that she had simply given Hong Kong away. At a press conference after a spectacular banquet in Peking╒s Great Hall of the People, she declared that the alternative to a negotiated deal would have been, quite simply, nothing at all.
╥I haven╒t given it away,╙ she said. ╥If we hadn╒t negotiated it would have gone away in 1997. Instead, we have secured an agreement which can give confidence to the people of Hong Kong.╙
That has been the basic argument of the British Government throughout the closing stages of the two years of talks with the Chinese. Britain╒s lease over 90 per cent of Hong Kong was due to expire in 1997 and the colony would automatically have reverted to Chinese rule.
On that premise, the agreement reached between Sir Geoffrey Howe, the Foreign Secretary, and Peking last month is presented as all gain. Based on China╒s unprecedented acceptance of the concept of two political and economic systems within the boundaries of one country, it guarantees the capitalistic system in the former colony for at least 50 years after 1997.
