OpinionJoint Declaration protects more than just our rights and freedoms
Frank Ching reminds us the Joint Declaration is supposed to protect HK's autonomy in local affairs, not just our rights and freedoms
It's hard to believe that the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which was meant to "ensure lasting stability and prosperity for Hong Kong", was signed almost 30 years ago. It is difficult for people not here then to imagine the tumult in Hong Kong between Margaret Thatcher's visit to Beijing in 1982 and the initialling of the Joint Declaration two years later. The colony went through a series of crises, which saw the currency in free fall and the stock market drop and recover only to drop again.
The Joint Declaration did much to restore confidence. China pledged that Hong Kong would "enjoy a high degree of autonomy, except in foreign and defence affairs".
The biggest fear was that the rights and freedoms would be lost. But they remain largely intact today, something that few people would have believed possible then. I, for one, was surprised that the annual June 4 candlelight vigils continued to be held after 1997 and actually got bigger, and China-watching magazines, whose editors thought they would be banned, continued to publish.
China deserves credit for exercising restraint, even though many people feel that it is now trying to limit press freedom and narrow voting rights. Still, the biggest past fears had to do with much more basic things, such as democrats being thrown in prison and newspapers being shut down, with PLA troops patrolling the streets. Such things did not happen.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the British government, in its latest six-monthly report on Hong Kong this month, concluded: "We consider that 'one country, two systems' continues to work well, in general, and that the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Joint Declaration continue to be upheld."
This has become a mantra. One exception was in 2004 , when foreign secretary Jack Straw acknowledged that the "intervention" of Beijing in Hong Kong's constitutional development "seemed inconsistent with the high degree of autonomy" guaranteed in the Joint Declaration.