U.S. Dept. of State - IIP: The United States and China

TRANSCRIPT: MIKE MCCURRY BRIEFING AT GOVERNMENT HOUSE
(U.S. urges movement toward more democracy under Basic Law)

Hong Kong -- The United States has been urging movement toward a more democratic system under the Basic Law that has governed the turnover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China, White House Spokesman Mike McCurry said during a readout of President Clinton's July 2 meeting with Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung.

"The President referenced the fact that Tung has enough prestige and respect, and he was hoping to suggest ... they try to increase the rights of voting and universal suffrage that are used for electing members of both the Legislative Council and the position of Chief Executive itself. That's a view the United States has expressed before, but the President wanted to take some point here to encourage them to deepen and strengthen the support for democracy here," McCurry said.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
(Hong Kong)

_____________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release                      July 2, 1998

READOUT BY MIKE MCCURRY
TO THE POOL

Government House
Hong Kong

MR. MCCURRY: The President had a 20-minute meeting with Chief Executive Tung and some of the other senior authorities here for the Hong Kong Special Autonomous Region. It was a conversation that was dominated by an exchange very similar to the toasts -- the President saying at one point to Chief Executive Tung, you must be pleased after one year of transition. As the President noted in the toast, they celebrated one year since the turnover yesterday. And Tung indicating that he felt that the transition had gone quite well.

The United States, as I think most people here know, has been urging movement toward a more democratic system under the Basic Law that has governed the turnover. The President referenced the fact that Tung has enough prestige and respect, and he was hoping to suggest at one point -- this didn't happen in the meeting but will happen probably during dinner -- that, as we have said in the past, at some point they try to increase the rights of voting and universal suffrage that are used for electing members of both the Legislative Council and the position of Chief Executive itself. That's a view the United States has expressed before, but the President wanted to take some point here to encourage them to deepen and strengthen the support for democracy here.

The main part of the meeting they had here was to review the economic crisis that Asia faces now, and as the President said, to commend the role that Hong Kong has played. Chief Executive Tung said that Hong Kong appreciates the leadership that the United States has taken on issues related to the Asian economy. They spent some time discussing the Japanese economy and the important role the Japanese economy plays throughout the region.

Just a short while ago, Japan announced some economic reforms, including a package of banking reforms. Those are under review by the U.S. Treasury Department. I'm not going to comment directly on them now, but they were referenced briefly in this meeting and it was clear that Hong Kong had a keen interest as well in the reform measures that had been articulated by Prime Minister Hashimoto's government.

Prime Minister Hashimoto had in the past indicated his intent to introduce reform measures, and today the government provided some specificity, and that's being reviewed.

The President, as he said in his toast, noted that Hong Kong is stable, prosperous, we hope in the future growing economically. But one thing that it has, an element of its future and its past which is so vital, is its democracy, and that its democratic traditions institutions, together with its very vibrant economy, provides kind of an inspiration for what could be the long-term future for the rest of the People's Republic of China. And the President noted that in closing and said that's one of many reasons we value the relationship as much as we do.

That's it. The speech -- the President is working on a speech tomorrow that will be, I would say after the Beijing University speech, the second most important speech that he gives on this trip. It will be an opportunity for him to place the trip, the changes we've talked about in China, particularly the economic significance of the role Hong Kong plays in the region -- place that in the context of the whole region. So this will be really a speech that moves beyond the particular aspects of the bilateral relationship, into the role that China and Hong Kong play in the Asia Pacific region generally, and he'll talk about some of our goals for continued involvement in the region, touching on, obviously, the Asia economic situation and probably other regional issues, too.

We were told, by the way, that that -- they had the dedication of the airport earlier today. We went by the riser at one point that they had, the bleachers. President Jiang Zemin, who spoke at the dedication, took off from the airport, so we think he's the first human passenger to leave. But we think that we're the first human passengers to arrive. That support plane that was sitting out there, the spare, arrived empty. So we think that Air Force One was the first plane with passengers to arrive there.

MR. MCCURRY: Jiang was the first one to take off, and Clinton was the first one to land.