30 years after pact … patience is wearing thin
Hongkongers queued in the rain for a copy of the Joint Declaration in 1984. Today, many are disappointed that democracy still eludes them
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of a draft of the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong's future.
The high degree of autonomy Beijing pledged in that agreement has been a point of contention in Hong Kong for some time, well before the central authorities set down a restrictive framework last month for political reform.
Present-day sentiments could not have been expected then; on the historic day, former Bar Association chairman Martin Lee Chu-ming said he was pleased that the pact stated the legal and judicial system would be unchanged for 50 years after 1997.
And hundreds braved the rain to queue outside district offices for a copy, hours after vice-minister of foreign affairs Zhou Nan and British ambassador to China Richard Evans inked the draft in Beijing. Within 11/2 hours of its release, more than 175,000 copies had been snapped up.
A district officer observed the documents were later "selling like hot cakes" although they had been distributed for free - testament to the generally positive reactions of Hongkongers to the agreement, which removed uncertainty over the city's future. Another district officer, Lam Woon-kwong of Sha Tin, now Exco convenor, said he couldn't meet demand despite borrowing copies from nearby districts.
Then on December 19, 1984, the pact was formally signed by premier Zhao Ziyang and British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in Beijing. Thirty years on, the city's legal system has remained largely unchanged since the handover, although the National People's Congress Standing Committee in 1999 made an interpretation of the Basic Law that effectively overruled the city's Court of Final Appeal in a right-of-abode case.
The capitalist system and way of life in the former British colony also continue as before. But those who expected greater democracy are disappointed that universal suffrage still eludes them. Lee, who had a brief honeymoon with Beijing in the mid-1980s, has turned critical since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.