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the Special Administrative Region will be directly elected.
12.
This evolution steady and gradual constitutes an appropriate response to the wishes expressed by people in Hong Kong. It also accommodates well the particular traditions of Hong Kong; its particular historical and geographical circumstances. I suggest
that it is by these criteria that it should be judged, not by comparion, for example the the Whitmunster model,
13.
I with
I turn now to the draft Basic Law. I should begin by recalling the background. The Joint Declaration provides that the policies of China which it sets out will be stipulated in a Basic Law, to be promulgated by the National People's Congress of China. To this end the Chinese Government established in 1985 a Basic Law Drafting Committee, just under half of whose membership is drawn from various circles in Hong Kong. That committee in turn set up a broadly-based Consultative Committee, consisting entirely of Hong Kong people, with the task of consulting all the sections of the community from which they were drawn and reflecting their views to the Basic Law drafters.
14.
There have thus been very elaborate arrangements to involve Hong Kong people in the drafting process. We welcome this. The exercise has also been a very open one: the media have been kept briefed on discussion in the Drafting Committee and even on the progress of the draft as this has evolved. There has been a very free exchange of views within the Committee.
15.
As I have made clear, responsibility for the drafting and promulgation of the Basic Law, as of any other Chinese law, rests with the Central People's Government and the National People's Congress of China. But the provision of the Joint Declaration to which I have referred, linking the content of the Joint Declaration with that of the Basic Law, gives the British Government an explicit locus standi. We are entitled to satisfy ourselves that the Basic Law fully and accurately reflects the Joint Declaration of which we, with the Chinese Government, are co-signatories. And this we shall do.
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