China And The Hong Kong Negotiations Of The 1980s

This work explores British discourse on China from the 19 th century through to the 1980 s,and examines the link between this discourse,and Britain's handling of the negotiations for the return of Hong Kong that took place between Britain and the People's Republic of China in 1982-1984.Using the tools of poststructuralist discourse analysis,it is shown that elements of paternalistic,romantic,and racialised discourse,which can be traced back to the 19 th century,continued to be a feature of Britain's representations of China into the 1980 s.The role of this 19 th century legacy,as well as contemporary issues of ideology,the Cold War,the Falklands crisis and Thatcher's personal leadership style are all identified as discursive factors that fed into Thatcher's official discourse during the negotiation period.Through a discourse analysis of mainstream media sources in the 1980 s,this work demonstrates that there was a high degree of consensus in the British media coverage of the Hong Kong negotiations,and broad support for the eventual outcome,the Joint Agreement,in 1984.In political discourse there was less consensus about ‘the Hong Kong problem',particularly at the start of the negotiating period.It is argued that these differences,to a considerable extent,are a reflection of domestic political rivalries rather than the specific issues of the Hong Kong case.