Premier Zhao Ziyang pledged in Beijing on March 31 that China will faithfully observe the two joint declarations and their annexes concerning Hong Kong and Macao. "We will not do anything that may harm the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and Macao at present or in the future. We wish to have a good ending as well as a good beginning so that everyone is happy."

Zhao, who is also acting general-secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, made the remarks while meeting with delegates from Hong Kong and Macao who were attending the current sessions of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing.

The premier said that the successful settlement of the Hong Kong and Macao issues is something worth celebrating as two major events in the Chinese history, of which all Chinese people, including compatriots in the two regions and Taiwan as well as overseas Chinese should be proud.

Premier Zhao Zlyang meets delegates from Hong Kong and Macao (QI TIEYAN)

He stressed that although Hong Kong and Macao will practise a capitalist system 50 years after their return to the motherland while the mainland will keep its socialist system, they are all parts of one country and are closely related. Political stability and economic prosperity of the mainland are beneficial to both of the regions, and vice versa, he said.

Therefore, Zhao said, the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao must strengthen their cooperation and make the most of all their advantages for mutual benefit and common development.

"Such co-operation," he added, "can cover such areas as resources, production as well as high technology." Hong Kong, which is well-informed and familiar with the international market, has its own trade and sales networks as well as management expertise. However, he said, Hong Kong needs to co-operate with the mainland to strengthen its competitiveness in the face of growing protectionism in world trade.

He made it clear that though China's direct trade with foreign countries has expanded steadily in recent years with the adoption of the policy of opening to the outside world, the mainland's entrepot trade via Hong Kong will continue to increase rather than decrease.

Referring to the struggle against bourgeois liberalization, Zhao said, "It has nothing to do with Hong Kong and Macao. It is aimed at building socialism. Since capitalism is and will be practised in Hong Kong and Macao, what's the point of opposing bourgeois liberalization there? Compatriots in Hong Kong and Macao need not be worried about this."

Furthermore, he added, to stage such a struggle in the two regions would directly contradict the concept of "one country, two systems" which has been a cardinal principle for reunifying China, put forward first by China's senior leader Deng Xiaoping more than four years ago.

Then he noted that the "leftist" ideology prevailed during the "cultural revolution" has no market on the mainland and is rejected by the overwhelming majority of the people. There does not exist the ideological basis for practising leftism in the country which has suffered enough from it.

(Beijing Review No. 15 April 13, 1987)