第二个问题只涉及一个字的文字，却影响了香港的政治，直到现在。

 

日复一日，威尔逊和他的对手们在措辞上争论不休。

他们就两国政府的宣言草案达成了协议，该草案被精简为八个段落，外加三个附件和两个备忘录。

最后的文本为中国赢得了主权和管理的主要目标。

为了换取这些丰厚的奖品，邓小平作出了一系列让步，允许香港在1997年后作为中国的一个特别行政区，拥有50年的权利和自由。

细节决定成败。

但到了7月下旬，很明显，一项协议已经在望。

 

Day by day, Wilson and his opponents fought over the wording. They forged agreement on a draft declaration by both governments, honed down to eight paragraphs plus three annexes and two memoranda. The final text won China its main objectives of sovereignty and administration. In exchange for these great prizes, Deng granted a list of concessions allowing Hong Kong to have its rights and freedoms for fifty years after 1997 as a Special Administrative Region of China. The devil would be in the details. But by late July it was clear that a deal was in sight.

 

在伦敦，Percy Cradock爵士终于摆脱了他的职业悲观主义。

我认为我们应该能够达成一个可以容忍的协议。

如果我们这样做了，我相信历史会判断我们坚持这样做是正确的，一旦最初的震惊过去，香港的反应可能会证明比目前的情况更好、更有弹性。

 

In London, Sir Percy Cradock for once shook off his professional pessimism. ‘I think we should just be able to reach a tolerable agreement. If we do, I am sure that history will judge we were right to persevere in this course and once the initial shock is over Hong Kong reaction may prove better and more resilient than seems the case at present.’

 

还有两个大的争论。

第一个是关于联合联络小组的问题。

第二是关于在中国统治下如何选择香港的领导人。

历史上的一个讽刺是，第一个问题被认为非常重要，几乎破坏了整个协议，现在已经被遗忘了，而第二个问题只涉及一个字的文字，却影响了香港的政治，直到现在。

 

Two big arguments remained. The first concerned the Joint Liaison Group. The second was over how the leader of Hong Kong would be chosen under Chinese rule. It is one of the ironies of history that the first was thought so important that it almost wrecked the entire agreement and has now been forgotten, while the second entailed just one word of text but has influenced the politics of Hong Kong ever since.

 

这个词就是 "选举"。

在谈判接近尾声时，在美国人认为最有可能看到大的要求或让步的阶段，双方就代议制政府进行了争论。

中方认为，英国人不应该决定如何选择特别行政区的领导人，但威尔逊坚持认为："我们正在敦促进行更多的选举，而中国人正在抵制这些选举。

周南根本不希望提到这个词。

最后一句话是：'行政长官将由中央人民政府根据当地选举或协商的结果任命。

 

That word was ‘elections’. Towards the end of the negotiations, at exactly the stage identified by the Americans as most likely to see big demands or concessions, the two sides were arguing about representative government. The Chinese side considered that it was no business of the British to determine how the leader of the Special Administrative Region was chosen, but Wilson persisted: ‘We were pressing for greater elections and the Chinese were resisting them.’ Zhou Nan did not want the word to be mentioned at all. The final sentence read: ‘The chief executive will be appointed by the Central People’s Government on the basis of the results of elections or consultations to be held locally.’

 

这句话的含义将被争论几十年。

但似乎无可争议的是，今天在香港争取民主的年轻运动者，因其技巧和坚持不懈的努力，欠下了卫奕信和他那群自谦的剑桥汉学家的债。

在他们中的许多人还没有出生的时候，它就给了他们一条生命线。