Thank you for raising this point. After checking with my colleagues, I can confirm that the idea that China unilaterally declare the Sino-British Joint Declaration irrelevant is actually a misunderstanding. The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s remarks in 2017 were responding to the UK government’s claim on Hong Kong.
In 2021, Beijing explicitly invoked the UK’s failure to honor aspects of the Declaration, an indication that China clearly acknowledges the Declaration’s existence and legal validity.
The primary purpose of the Joint Declaration was to set out the arrangements between China and the United Kingdom regarding the return of Hong Kong. Once Hong Kong was returned in 1997, that purpose was fulfilled. After 1997, Hong Kong’s governance has operated under the Basic Law and falls entirely within China’s internal affairs. Under this framework, any attempt by the UK to invoke the Joint Declaration as a pretext to interfere in Hong Kong’s post-return affairs is not justified nor legitimate. When the Chinese Foreign Ministry referred to the Declaration as a “historical document,” it was in this specific context.
And btw, the four political documents between China and Japan have been repetitively affirmed by the two country’s leadership these years. Their natures are different from the China-Britain one.
Thank you for raising this point. After checking with my colleagues, I can confirm that the idea that China unilaterally declare the Sino-British Joint Declaration irrelevant is actually a misunderstanding. The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s remarks in 2017 were responding to the UK government’s claim on Hong Kong.
In 2021, Beijing explicitly invoked the UK’s failure to honor aspects of the Declaration, an indication that China clearly acknowledges the Declaration’s existence and legal validity.
The primary purpose of the Joint Declaration was to set out the arrangements between China and the United Kingdom regarding the return of Hong Kong. Once Hong Kong was returned in 1997, that purpose was fulfilled. After 1997, Hong Kong’s governance has operated under the Basic Law and falls entirely within China’s internal affairs. Under this framework, any attempt by the UK to invoke the Joint Declaration as a pretext to interfere in Hong Kong’s post-return affairs is not justified nor legitimate. When the Chinese Foreign Ministry referred to the Declaration as a “historical document,” it was in this specific context.
And btw, the four political documents between China and Japan have been repetitively affirmed by the two country’s leadership these years. Their natures are different from the China-Britain one.