U.S. and Hong Kong (1985-1997)

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release
January 28, 1997

PRESS CONFERENCE OF THE PRESIDENT

East Room

2:30 P.M. EST

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

Q: Mr. President, the Chinese have been making a lot of noises about clamping down on civil liberties in Hong Kong. How concerned are you about this, and will this upset our relationship in any way?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, it wouldn't help anything. I'm concerned about it, and I think the -- we don't know yet what's going to happen. But the Chinese have basically said that it would be a part of China, but its system would be left intact. And I think there may be some ambivalence about what it means to leave their system intact. And I think maybe some would assume that you could impose political uniformity on Hong Kong and leave its economic vibrancy in tact. It really is, in some ways, almost a perfect open market, you know. And I don't know if that's true or not. It's a complex society.

I think anyone who has ever been to Hong Kong more than once -- and I've been there on several occasions in my life -- probably leaves with the feeling I have, that you could go there a thousand times and you might not ever understand it all. It's a complicated society. And I'm not so sure that it can exist with all of its potential to help China modernize its own economy and open opportunities for its own people if the civil liberties of the people are crushed.

So I think it would be wrong on its own merits, but I think it might wind up being less useful to China. So I would hope very much that they would look for ways to maximize the continuation not only of the economic system, but of the personal freedoms that the people of Hong Kong have enjoyed in making it such an economic engine.

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END

3:25 P.M. EST