On June 30, 2017, foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong: “As a historical document, it no longer has any practical significance. It is not binding in any way on the central government’s administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.”
A spokesperson of the British Foreign Office replied that the Declaration “remains as valid today as when it was signed over thirty years ago. It is a legally binding treaty, registered with the UN, and continues to be in force.”
In September 2017, Xu Hong, head of the Chinese foreign ministry’s department of treaty and law, said that China had never denied that the Declaration is an agreement.