CONFIDENTIAL
}
Background
8.
Government
undertakes
that
By paragraph 3(12) of Joint Declaration the Chinese
the policies in the Joint
Declaration and in Annex I will be stipulated in a Basic Law of
the Hong Kong SAR and will remain unchanged for 50 years.
9.
The Chinese Government have said that they intend to
complete the Basic Law by 1990. They have appointed a Basic
Law Drafting Committee, chaired by Ji Pengfei, Head of the Hong
Kong and Macau office of the State Council, and which includes
23 Hong Kong representatives among its 59 members. They have
also agreed to the formation of a 150 member Basic Law
Consultative Committee in Hong Kong, members of which are to be
nominated by representative organisations in various fields.
We believe that most of the actual drafting work will be done
by officials of the Hong Kong
Kong and Macau
and Macau Office, but it is
encouraging that the Chinese have
far shown themselves
reasonably sensitive to Hong Kong opinion.
10.
We have no standing in the drafting of Basic Law, and
the Chinese are very sensitive to any suggestion that we can
dictate policies for the SAR, which will be a part of the PRC
after 1 July 1997. We hope however that we will be able to
influence the drafting process through informal contacts. The
crucial aspects for us are that the Basic Law accurately
reflect the agreement (and not be much shorter) an d that in
those areas where i t fills in details, such as government
structure, it does not run against Our own plans for Hong
Kong's constitutional development.
11.
There has been some public controversy over whether the
Basic Law itself should be interpreted by the Chinese National
People's Congress or by the Courts in Hong Kong. The Joint
Declaration is silent on this point. The Chinese response has
While asserting the supremacy of the NPC, which
been confused.
CONFIDENTIAL