B029_charles2.txt

Hong Kong has shown the world how dynamism and stability can be defining characteristics of a successful society. These have together created a great economy, which is the envy of the world. Hong Kong has shown the world how East and West can live and work together. As a flourishing commercial and cultural cross-roads, it has brought us together and enriched all our lives. Thirteen years ago the Governments of the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China recognized in the Joint Declaration that these special elements which had created the crucial conditions for Hong Kong's success should continue. They agreed that, in order to maintain that success, Hong Kong should have its own separate trading and financial systems, should enjoy autonomy and an elected legislature, should maintain its laws and liberties, and should be run by the people of Hong Kong and be accountable to them. Those special elements have served Hong Kong well over the past two decades. Hong Kong has coped with the challenges of great economic, social and political transition with almost none of the disturbance and dislocation which in other parts of the world have so often accompanied change on such a scale.