AS THE British and Chinese teams in the Joint Liaison Group discuss the future use of the land used by the British military forces in Hongkong, it is timely to ask, what should Hongkong people look for from these negotiations? The Foundation believes we should be looking for more living space. The military lands are an immense unappreciated asset in our midst that could be used to solve our housing problem. The inadequate land supply could be solved with the use of the military lands.
These are so large that even if most of the space were used for much-needed housing, office and recreation areas, there would still be plenty to meet the military needs of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) after 1997.
The military lands comprise about 5,900 hectares or more than five per cent of the territory. This represents 118 years of land supply at the rate set down in the Joint Declaration - an indication of the immense potential of this space for Hongkong.
The two largest areas are the 2,190 hectares of the Castle Peak firing range and the 2,900 hectares at the border. However, there are also large areas in urban Kowloon and on Hongkong Island.
The needs of the people of Hongkong should be given priority in discussions on the disposition of these lands.
The Foundation accepts the jurisdiction of the Government of China over defence matters relating to the future Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Hongkong, including the right to station PLA troops here. We also accept that defence is a specialised and confidential matter, and that accordingly defence needs cannot always be publicly discussed.
However, the Foundation believes that there are certain factors arising from Hongkong's unique circumstances which set limits to the ''defence'' aspect of the debate. These factors are: The Hongkong SAR will not be a country, or even a province, with its own defence needs. It will be merely a municipality within a very large country. The needs of the PLA in the SAR after 1997 cannot be compared with the historical requirements of the British forces in Hongkong. The British forces were expected to maintain a presence in a colonial outpost thousands of kilometres from the mother country. After 1997 Hongkong will lie securely in the embrace of the mother country.