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after 1997, introduced a new urgency and purpose into the consideration of constitutional reform.
14. In early 1983, consideration began again to be given to how to increase participation by the people of Hong Kong in the management of the territory. Now, however, the objectives were somewhat different. They
were:
(a)
(b)
15.
to meet a growing demand for such participation, particularly among the now large professional middle class; and
to increase the strength of the indigenous political and administrative regime against the time when Britain had ultimately to withdraw.
Nevertheless, discussions during 1983 still stopped well short of suggesting direct elections to the Legislative Council. An intra-governmental working party set up in Hong Kong that autumn was intended "neither to expand the present electoral franchise, nor to extend the electoral system beyond the Urban Council and the District Boards, but merely to consider whether the present administrative arrangements can be improved".
16. The Chinese attitude was one reason for this cautious remit, especially as the negotiations over the future were then at a delicate stage. Another was, once again, the danger of arousing local fears of impending British withdrawal: the widespread hope in Hong Kong was still that, somehow, the 1997 lease might be extended. As the negotiations progressed, however, it became plain that there was to be no such extension. Moreover, as the negotiations with the Chinese began to focus on the detailed contents of an agreement on the future, it became necessary to consider the central constitutional arrangements for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region after 1997, and to start working towards those arrangements quickly so that any new system was in place before the British constitutional link was severed and Hong Kong had to stand up for itself.
17.
By early 1984, consideration was therefore being given to ways to extend the electoral process to the central level of government - the Legislative and the Executive Councils. In February, proposals for further development at the regional and district levels were announced with the creation of a New Territories equivalent of the Urban Council, to be called the Regional Council, and the enlargement of the elected membership of District Boards to form a two-thirds majority. By that time the more radical ideas behind the July 1984 Green Paper were also taking shape.
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