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the British equivalent.
Council. The nature of the judiciary is not set out. He
commented that while he had had a reply from Mr. Higginson,
none had yet come from NCNA! He assured me that he would
feel free to promote these ideas, and to underline the aims
on which they were based, to those whom he expected to meet
in Peking.
The mayor would be elected by the
7.
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Dr. Young is not affiliated to any political
group in Hong Kong; he feels most of them are self-seeking,
i.e. trying now to establish roles for themselves in any
future set-up. He considers that the Observers have almost
as bad a reputation in Hong Kong as Meeting Point in this
respect. Many of his students share his cynicism. (He
described the chairman of the latter as fascist-inclined)
8.
Dr. Young has few illusions about freedom of
political expression in contemporary China. He pointed
for instance to the recent trials after which the defendants
had been given lengthy jail sentences for "revolutionary
activities", (without any apparent legal basis). He also
said that while the Chinese authorities had in 1982
nominally invited the views of academics and others in
Hong Kong on the draft constitution, (and, here he referred
specifically to a discussion at the Chinese University
and to a subsequent visit to the north by one token Hong
Kong lady thereafter), their views had clearly counted
for nought.
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