Has Britain caved in?

Has Britain caved in to Beijing's demand that its People's Liberation Army come marching in three hours before the actual transfer of sovereignty on Monday night? Some in the media seem to think so, and reacted instinctively to Monday's Sino-British agreement that will see 509 PLA troops, accompanied by light arms, cross the border at 9 p.m. Hence the suggestion of a British "cave-in" moments after the announcement was made.

This is simply facetious; an advance unit of the PLA has been in town for weeks. Whether the rest arrives at 9 p.m. or a minute after midnight makes no difference whatever. Only those bent on making mischief will find those three hours of any significance.

The agreement makes up for an earlier British rejection for the whole PLA garrison to be in place before the handover. It is also to offset the three hours beyond midnight needed by the last remaining British troops to pack up and leave town, an interval when Hong Kong will legally already be part of China. A tit-for- tat arrangement, in other words. As anybody who has had to look after the bivouacking of such large numbers will realize, it is not an easy task to allocate quarters and bunks at short notice without proper logistical support and preparation.

The last thing we want to see is the main force of the PLA Hong Kong garrison thrown into confusion on arrival.

What the British finally agreed to was to do the simple, decent thing and allow the PLA to take over in an orderly fashion. It's a pity that even such a minor matter should have been haggled over until the last moment.

-- The Hong Kong Standard