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3.
Frank Ching asked whether pressure for direct elections in
Hong Kong had assisted HMG in dealing with the Chinese on this
issue.
4.
On the first SAR Government, you said we had always seen continuity as extremely important. We understood the Chinese
concerns about sovereignty, but did not believe that they were
incompatible with continuity. The key now was to persuade the
Chinese not to go into detail in the Basic Law but leave the matter
aside to be dealt with later. You noted that we had a duty to
ensure that the Basic Law reflects the Joint Declaration. On
membership of the Land Development Corporation, you said you had no knowledge of any controversy. But it was absurd to suggest that the
On
Chinese or NCNA had in any way influenced the appointments. possible NCNA/Chinese interference with the courts, you said that we would have to watch the tendency of individuals with grievances looking to the NCNA for help. You thought the Chinese too were well aware of the danger, and did not wish to get involved. Generally
they had acted properly saying where appropriate that matters referred to them were for the Hong Kong Government. On censorship of films, you said that films were generally perceived as a special case. In practice, very few films had been censored in the past, and you thought that provision to censor a few films was a
reasonable price to pay for the great freedom which Hong Kong media
enjoy. On whether pressure for direct elections helped us deal with
the Chinese, you noted that we had always said the review was genuine, it was intended to identity Hong Kong views, and we had no preconceptions.
5.
(a)
In conclusion you made two general points:
our views and Lee's were essentially the same. We both wanted the SAR Government in 1997 to get off to the best possible
start, and to enjoy to the full the autonomy prescribed for it
in the JD. That implied the greatest possible degree of continuity. How that was achieved was essentially a matter of judgement.
(b)
it was difficult for Ministers and officials to discuss the
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