 |
|
Speech by U.S. President Bill Clinton at the Government House *****************************************************
Thank you. Thank you very much, Chief Executive Tung, Mrs. Tung, members of your government and citizens of Hong Kong. Hillary and I and our delegation, including several members of the United States Congress and members of our Cabinet and other Americans, are all delighted to be here tonight.
Hong Kong is a world symbol of trade, enterprise, freedom, and global interdependence. Visitors come here for fashion and food. The world consumes your electronics products and your movies. And every American who has ever wanted to travel anywhere, has wanted to come to Hong Kong.
This is, it is true, the first visit to Hong Kong of a President, and a fortuitous one for me that I can come and wish all of you a happy anniversary, but it is not my first trip to Hong Kong. My wife and I have both been here in our previous lives -- or, as we say when we're back home, back when we had a life and were free people and could travel, we came to Hong Kong.
Much has changed since we were last year more than 10 years ago now. I'm told that a seven-year-old girl back then was asked what she thought of Hong Kong and she said, it will be a great city once they finish it. Of course, a great city is never finished. And this great city has always given me the feeling that it is always becoming something more and new and different.
Indeed, I was privileged, I suppose, to be one of the first people to land at your new airport tonight coming in. I have to say it was a mixed blessing because for those of us who have ever sat in a cockpit and landed at your old airport, it was one of the most exciting and uncertain experiences of my lifetime.
But I saw your brilliant new airport and I was reminded that, indeed, in spite of the present difficulties in Asia, Hong Kong is still very much a city that is becoming. That is also true of America. President Franklin Roosevelt once said that our freedom was a never-ending seeking for better things. Hong Kong shows that that is what you are doing as well.
I must say too that I am profoundly appreciative to President Jiang and to all others who have helped make this trip to China a remarkably successful attempt to continue to build our partnership for the future. The open press conference we had that was televised to the Chinese people, the opportunity I had to speak to the students at Beijing University and to answer their questions, which were quite pointed and good, I thought, and then to meet with several thousand students outside, the television and radio interviews, the opportunities that Hillary and I had to meet with citizens from all walks of life in China -- all this was encouraging, and made me believe that we can build together a future that is more stable, more prosperous, and free.
And so I thank you all for giving me the best possible place to end my trip to China. I think that all that Hong Kong is to Americans and to the rest of the world is somehow embodied in your Chief Executive. He was born in Shanghai, raised in Hong Kong, educated in England, worked in New York and Boston. His children all have U.S. citizenship because they were born there. He's a fan of the Liverpool Soccer Club and the San Francisco Forty-Niners. The world's city should have a citizen of the world as its Chief Executive.
I want you to know that the United States considers Hong Kong vital to the future not only of China and Asia, but of the United States and the world as well. Our ties must grow stronger and they will. And this present financial crisis too will pass, if we work together with discipline and vision to lift the fortunes of our neighbours. Believe me, there is no one in America who is not eagerly awaiting the resumption of real growth and stability in the Asian economy, and we are prepared to do whatever we can to support it. We also appreciated what China and Hong Kong have done and the price that has been paid to stabilize the situation.
So let us look forward to the future with all its vitality and all of its unpredictable events. Some will be difficult, but most will be very good, if, as I said to President Jiang, we stay on the right side of history.
Thank you very much.
|
