CATABJ
SECRET
PAPER NO
THE QUESTION OF CONVERGENCE
1.
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During the meeting of the Joint Liaison Group in
Peking in November 26-29 1985 both sides agreed on the
need to achieve convergence between
any reforms to the structure of government in Hong Kong before 1997 and the structure of the Government of the Hong Kong SAR after
1997, and to conduct discussions and exchange views on this subject without preconceived ideas.
2. The development of Representative government in Hong Kong has been based on the principle of building on the
existing institutions which have served Hong Kong well: while allowing for further development, if that should be
wish of the community. Paper No. 1 describes how the
present governmental institutions in Hong Kong operate in
practice and the inter-relationship of the various elements in the government structure in particular the Governor,
the Executive Council and the Legislative Council.
3.
Paper No. 2 describes the present state of Hong Kong
opinion on the further development of the governmental system following the review in 1987. Essentially there is
likely to be little call for any fundamental change in the
structure: the main attention is likely to be focussed on
the question of introducing a number of directly elected
seats into the Legislative Council and on that of the
Presidency of that Council.
THE JOINT DECLARATION
4.
Under Article 3(12) of the Joint Declaration the
policies stated in the Declaration, and the elaboration of
them in Annex 1 to the
the Declaration, will be stipulated in the Basic Law: the Joint Declaration contains a number of
SECRET