Talks
| Major events during 1979–1997 | |
| 24 March 1979 | Hong Kong Governor Sir Murray MacLehose was invited to visit Guangzhou and Beijing to find out the attitude of the Chinese government on the issue of Hong Kong. |
| 29 March 1979 | Sir Murray MacLehose met the then vice Premier Deng Xiaoping and raised the issue of Hong Kong for the first time. Deng remarked that the investors could set their minds at peace. |
| 4 April 1979 | The Kowloon-Canton through-train routes were restored after 30 years of non-service. |
| 3 May 1979 | The Conservative Party won the U.K. Election. |
| 29 October 1979 | Premier Hua Guofeng visited Britain and had a meeting with Margaret Thatcher. Both of them expressed their concern to maintain the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong. |
| 12 May 1980 | Tabled by the Conservative Party in the British government, a new status "British Dependent Territories Citizens" was introduced. This status proposal was widely opposed by Hong Kong people. |
| 3 April 1981 | Lord Carrington met Deng Xiaoping in his visit to Beijing. |
| 30 September 1981 | Chairman of the NPC Ye Jianying issued nine guiding principles concerning a peaceful reunification of Taiwan and mainland China. |
| 30 October 1981 | The House of Commons passed the new British Nationality Act. |
| Nov 1981 | The Beijing government invited some Hong Kong citizens to help organising a united front in the handling of the Hong Kong issue. |
| 6 January 1982 | Chinese Prime Minister Zhao Ziyang received Humphrey Atkins. Zhao insisted that the PRC would uphold her sovereignty over Hong Kong. |
| 10 March 1982 | Vice Premier Gu Mu received Sir John Bremridge, promising to maintain Hong Kong's stability and prosperity. |
| 6 April 1982 | Deng Xiaoping revealed his wish to have official contact with the British government. |
| 8 May 1982 | Sir Edward Youde arrived as the 26th Governor of Hong Kong. |
| May 1982 | Deng Xiaoping and Zhao Ziyang collected advice from Hong Kong notables such as Lee Ka-shing and Ann tse-kei. |
| 15 June 1982 | Deng Xiaoping officially announced the position of the Chinese government in the context of the Hong Kong 97 Issue, marking the first public statement on part of the PRC with regards to the issue. |
Read more about this topic: Transfer Of Sovereignty Over Hong Kong
Famous quotes containing the word talks:
“There are few ironclad rules of diplomacy but to one there is no exception. When an official reports that talks were useful, it can safely be concluded that nothing was accomplished.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“Bore. A person who talks when you wish him to listen.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)
“One farmer says to me, “You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with;” and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)