CONFIDENTIAL
to including in the review the question of direct elections. At the
same time the Chinese Government and the BLDC
BLDC will be considering
the structure of government for the SAR in 1997. The first draft of
the Basic Law will be published in 1988. It is very important that
there should be no conflict between the outcome of these two
exercises. Particular difficulty would be caused if a decision
taken by the British side at the end of
the end of 1987 was inconsistent with
the provisions in the draft Basic Law published by the Chinese Government in the following year. This would call into question
convergence" and a smooth transition in 1997: greatly damage confidence in Hong Kong: and weaken the basis for our necessary
cooperation with the Chinese Government.
The Chinese attitude
22.
known
Over the past year the Chinese have on many occasions made
their concern at the direction and pace of constitutional
development in Hong Kong.
In November 1985 their de facto
representative in Hong Kong publicly accused us of "deviations from
the Joint Declaration", a statement which
seriously jolted
Although we have
over
now done much to re-establish a
these issues, Chinese nervousness
confidence.
relationship of mutual trust
remains.
23.
The Chinese concerns appear to be twofold. The Chinese do not want us to announce decisions about major constitutional change
(in particular over direct elections to the Legislative Council) in advance of the promulgation of the Basic Law in 1990. They fear
that the impression could be given that important provisions in the
Basic Law had been imposed on them by our pre-emptive action through
the review. They want to avoid a choice between making stipulations
in the Basic Law which are in actual or potential conflict with the
prevailing constitutional structure in Hong Kong and incorporating
stipulations which they do not desire. On at least one occasion
they have said explicitly that, if faced with such a choice, they
would go for the former option. On the substance, they fear (as do
many in Hong Kong itself) that too rapid an evolution of representative government could lead to instability and the divisive effects of party politics.
CONFIDENTIAL
-7-