-
We are committed to including in the review the question of
direct elections. At the same time the Chinese Government and
the 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 there was
inconsistency between decisions taken by the British side at
the end of 1987 and 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 the co-operation between the Chinese
Government and HMG which will facilitate the transfer of
sovereignty.
The Chinese attitude
23.
Over the past year the Chinese have on many occasions
made known 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 confidence. Although we have now done much
to re-establish a relationship of mutual trust over these
issues, Chinese nervousness remains.
24.
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