As Hong Kong marks 35 years since draft Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed, is universal suffrage as out of reach as ever?
- Anniversary of first signing coincides with town hall dialogue between city’s leader Carrie Lam and community
- But decades after election was promised in Basic Law, Hongkongers are no closer to having say in who leads them
While the uncertainty over whether the capitalist system and way of life would continue in the former British colony has been removed since Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule, some issues not clearly addressed by the accord remain.
And whether the declaration, which was initialled by vice-minister of foreign affairs Zhou Nan and British ambassador to China Richard Evans on September 26, 1984, is still valid, remains a bone of contention.
Formally signed on December 19, 1984, in Beijing, by premier Zhao Ziyang and British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the declaration said the central government would appoint the chief executive based on the results of “elections or consultations to be held locally”.
Later in the Basic Law, universal suffrage was promised as the “ultimate aim” for electing the city’s leader, and mainland scholars argue this shows it was Beijing that initiated a wave of democratisation in the mid-1980s.