WITH 18 days to go, the 156-year occupation of Hong Kong by Britain is ending in a series of public rebuffs, petty slights, recriminations and boycotts, which threaten to cast a pall over the celebrations planned for the handover at midnight on June 30th.
The latest discord stems from Britain's refusal to allow People's Liberation Army units to deploy in Hong Kong some hours early so that soldiers can be in position to take up duties at the moment of the transfer of sovereignty. "There is no question of Britain agreeing," a Foreign Office spokesman said.
At the same time the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair has said he will boycott part of the ceremony involving the swearing in of a provisional legislature, as it replaces the current legislative body which is a product of Britain's electoral reforms.
Meanwhile the first shot of the Opium War, an epic film about how Britain seized the territory in 1841, was fired at Governor Chris Patten. He was deliberately left off the invitation list for a celebrity premiere staged by Panasia Films at the Hong Kong Convention Centre on Wednesday, attended by his successor, Mr Tung Chee-hwa, and the deputy director of China's Hong Kong mission, Mr Zhang Junsheng. A spokesman said: "We want it to be seen by Chinese first."
The row about PLA deployment is a serious setback in Sino-British negotiations for a smooth transfer. China already has an advance party of 200 unarmed soldiers in place to prepare accommodation supplies and communications. Beijing wants, however, to move several hundred soldiers into position to be ready to assume defence duties at midnight.
Mr Zhang said: "The People's Liberation Army should be in Hong Kong barracks before the zero hour on July 1st so that after the completion of the handover ceremony they can take up defence responsibilities." He said the 1984 Sino-British handover treaty stipulated the PLA would take over the defence of Hong Kong from midnight on June 30th.
A Foreign Office spokesman in Hong Kong, Mr Bill Dickson, said: "Britain is the sovereign power and is responsible for the defence of Hong Kong up to the last stroke of midnight on June 30th and that is when China assumes its sovereignty responsibility."
At the same time British forces will not leave the territory for three hours after it reverts to China, when its last garrison members fly out on a chartered jet.
Mr Blair will be among 4,000 guests witnessing the joint handover ceremony in the new convention centre, where construction is almost complete. He will be accompanied by the Prince of Wales and the Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook - who in a 1995 Commons debate condemned the British Conservative government for having "discovered democracy" in Hong Kong only in the last five years of its long rule.
Other countries invited to send representatives, including Ireland, will have to decide whether to join the British boycott and risk offending China, with possible negative consequences on future ties.
. Australia broke ranks yesterday when its prime minister, Mr John Howard, said he would attend the swearing-in of the new legislature.
"We won't be following the American-British decision on that," said Mr Howard. "The days are long gone when an Australian prime minister waited for London or Washington to decide what he did."
New Zealand also indicated a senior minister would be at the ceremony. Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, which take the line that Hong Kong will become an internal Chinese affair, are all sending their foreign ministers.
Meanwhile, a senior member of the police team organising security for the transfer said the personal bodyguards of Chinese leaders attending the ceremony had agreed not to carry guns.
No foreign security agents would be permitted to bring fire-arms into Hong Kong before the handover at midnight on June 30th, said Sen Supt Colin Thornborrow; senior police were negotiating with the organisers of a number of rallies.