Britain, China Sign Airport Deal
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HONG KONG — After years of wrangling, Britain and China on Friday signed a deal removing obstacles to financing Hong Kong’s new airport, the world’s largest civil aviation project of the 1990s.
British officials, however, said the massive project will not be done before the colony returns to China on June 30, 1997.
The agreement, exactly two years before Hong Kong’s hand-over, is a sign that Anglo-Chinese ties are warming after three years of acrimony over political reforms. It followed another landmark deal last month to give Hong Kong an appeals court after 1997.
China and Britain agreed in 1991 that Hong Kong needed to replace its congested inner-city Kai Tak Airport, but they disagreed on how to fund it. Friday’s agreement assures lenders that financing for the project has China’s complete blessing.
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