emily lauer is of the democratic party and annex lawmaker . she covered the hand over negotiation between the u. k. and china before 1997 and has witnessed hong kong changes since then result in 1984 you asked to then the u. k. prime minister, margaret petra, if it was morally defensible to hand over hong kong to a communist dictatorship. those were your words, did you imagine then that hong kong would turn into what it is now? well, not exactly, but of course i was very, very concern. and of course, i wasn't the only one because many hong kong people had fled from mainland china to come to hong kong. were they as political or economic refugees? so to hand them back to mainland china, of course, some people were alarmed and concern. but you know, i did not foresee things happening in exactly in the current ways. you would ask me about the sino british joint declaration of 1984 that guaranteed hong kong autonomy for 50 years beginning in 1997. do you think britain dropped the ball as it became clear? china wasn't respecting this agreement? well