BARONESS Dunn, the senior member of the low-profile Executive Council, yesterday returned to the spotlight for a moment to give a timely reminder that Britain, not China, is still the sovereign power here. The Joint Declaration, she pointed out, said Britain would retain sovereignty until June 30, 1997. The Preliminary Working Committee (PWC), a group set up to consider ways Hong Kong might be run after 1997, was an advisory body, not an organ of power.
Lady Dunn is formally and, for the most part, practically correct. In some important areas - where decisions taken now will continue to have effect after 1997 - China can exercise a veto. However, the Hong Kong Government is running day-to-day, week-to-week affairs of the territory.
Nevertheless, public perceptions, particularly of the role of the PWC, are tending to undermine that autonomy.
Lu Ping, the Director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, is clear that the PWC is not a shadow government or alternative power centre. It is virtually a Legislative Council in training. Even if it were an organ of power it would have no jurisdiction in Hong Kong, unless Britain agreed to its decisions through the Joint Liaison Group or other official channels.
The PWC this week is holding its first meetings in the territory, so it is natural that it is attracting a great deal of interest. But the publicity gives an exaggerated view of its real power. Some of its members are uncomfortable with the attention they are getting and those most likely to have positions of real importance in the post-1997 administration are the most publicity-shy. But many have joined in the self-promotion with enthusiasm. Chinese officialdom, concerned to build up the PWC's credibility, has, of course, connived in this conjuring trick.
There are those who blame the media for reporting these amateur politicians' meetings, giving them what Lady Thatcher, the former British prime minister, has called ''the oxygen of publicity''. They are blaming the messenger. The people of Hong Kong want to know what the PWC thinks precisely because British rule is coming to an end, without the goal of convergence guiding its final years. It is inevitable that people will be eager to gain glimpses of how the future sovereign intends to govern.
