Hong Kong to honour pacts made by British regime

BEIJING, June 18: China has announced that Hong Kong will abide by the international treaties, signed during the British rule, even after t...

BEIJING, June 18: China has announced that Hong Kong will abide by the international treaties, signed during the British rule, even after the handover on July 1 to ensure smooth transition and to preserve its long-term prosperity and stability.

Cui Tiankai, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said the Chinese government has recently presented notes to the deposit organs for all the relevant treaties on the issue concerning the application of relevant multilateral international treaties to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) as of July 1, 1997.

“In the days to come, the Chinese government will also comprehensively elaborate, through the secretary general of the United Nations, to the international community the principles and approaches regarding the application of the relevant international treaties to the HKSAR,” Cui told correspondents here yesterday.

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The treaties are relating to economy and trade, customs, science and technology, civil aviation, merchant ships, intellectual property rights, resources, environmental protection, postal service, international laws and other areas, he said adding that altogether there are more than 200 such individual treaties, over 80 of which China hasn’t acceded to by now.

The spokesman stressed that the Chinese government has taken such a step in order to implement the “one country, two systems” principle as well as the relevant provisions of the basic law of the HKSAR. Official sources said China has submitted a notification to the United Nations secretary-general and a list of 16 international conventions that will apply to Hong Kong from July 1.

In accordance with the Sino-British joint declaration and the basic law of Hong Kong, the international conventions, to which China is a party, will apply to Hong Kong from July 1 after consultations with authorities of the HKSAR while the international conventions or agreements, to which China is not a party but which are implemented in Hong Kong, may continue to be implemented in the HKSAR from July 1.

The list of 16 conventions sent to the UN secretary general on June 10 is the second batch of the conventions that will apply to Hong Kong from July

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