CHINA yesterday launched a belated attack on the relocation of the naval base from HMS Tamar to Stonecutters Island, while Britain claimed the Chinese side had previously agreed to it.
Although Britain said on March 26 the navy was starting the two month process of moving the base, China's accusation, that London was taking a unilateral decision for which it must bear all consequences, came only yesterday morning during a regular meeting of representatives of the Joint Liaison Group (JLG).
It was made public in a news despatch from the local branch of the New China News Agency in the afternoon.
The British Foreign Office spokesman in Hongkong, Mr Chris Osborne, said it was the first objection to the shift that Britain had received.
It is understood that China agreed at a JLG meeting in September 1991, that Tamar naval basin could be filled in and the naval facilities moved to Stonecutters Island.
The $350 million relocation would leave 4.4 hectares of land to the east of the Prince of Wales Building available for redevelopment as part of the Central and Western Reclamation Project.