The PRC’s foreign affairs power had, briefly, been described in the previous chapter, together with the power in the realm of defence. These powers impose together important and at times anxious limitations on Hong Kong’s autonomy, not just on Hong Kong’s external affairs and foreign treaty relations but also on the judicial function of the courts. In the ‘Twelve Points’ which became the Joint Declaration, the sixth was that Hong Kong will manage its own affairs except in defence and foreign affairs. That qualification is often forgotten or dismissed, but it cannot be so easily brushed aside.