Abstract
On September 26, 1984, after almost two years of negotiations, the United Kingdom and the People’s Republic of China initialed the Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong (Joint Declaration). Under this agreement, the UK will return control of Hong Kong to the PRC on July 1, 1997. The agreement was well received by the United States, Japan, Southeast Asian countries and Western European countries, all of whom have a stake in the post-1997 con- tinuation of stability and prosperity of Hong Kong, the third largest financial center in the world. While this agreement relates solely to the status of Hong Kong, the PRC undertook negotiations fully aware of their implications for the potential unification of Taiwan with the mainland. From the PRC’s point of view, this agreement is an example of the successful implementation of the “one country, two systems” policy advocated by Deng Xiaoping as the basis for incorporating Taiwan into the PRC.