Deng Xiaoping left open in 1979 the options of taking back Hong Kong in 1997 or allowing the status quo to continue after the expiry of the New Territories lease, according to Britain's declassified record of a meeting between Deng, then China's paramount leader, and Hong Kong governor Murray MacLehose 31 years ago.
During the historic talks in Beijing on March 29, 1979, Deng told MacLehose that China 'might' take over Hong Kong by 1997 but it would respect the city's 'special status'.
'[Deng said] they had not taken over Macau so far. There were two solutions by 1997, to take Hong Kong over, or to allow present realities to remain,' the record said.
Deng's apparently flexible position on the resumption of sovereignty differed from his unequivocal declaration in 1982, during talks with then British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, that China would take over Hong Kong in 1997.
The record of the earlier meeting was compiled by Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office and was recently declassified from the Britain's National Archives in London under the 30-year rule.
MacLehose returned to Hong Kong after the trip, triumphantly bearing a message from Deng to 'ask investors in Hong Kong to put their hearts at ease' and that the Chinese leaders attached great importance to the value of the city to the mainland's modernisation programme.
