SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
DSR 11C (Revised 5/87)
the power of interpretation of the Basic Law) where the
drafting can be further improved. We will want to peruse
these points in the light of reactions in Hong Kong.
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In Confidence
11.
There are particular difficulties over the section
on the future political system. The Joint Declaration
says only that the legislature will be "composed of local
inhabitants" and "constituted by elections"; and that the
Chief Executive will be "selected by election or through
consultations held locally". There have been differences
of view amongst the Hong Kong members of the Basic Law
Drafting Committee, reflecting a similar divergence of
opinion in Hong Kong. Some members of the BLDC, led by
Mr Martin Lee, are pressing for the fastest possible
progress towards a directly elected Chief Executive and a
fully directly elected legislature. Others, including
such business figures as Sir Y K Pao, advocate a
considerably more conservative approach, involving
minimal evolution from the status quo. The draft as it
now stands embodies a position which leans to the more
conservative of the two views. It sets a timetable for
change after 1997 and proposes that referenda should be
held in 2011 and 2012 to determine whether at that point
Hong Kong should have a directly elected Chief Executive
and a fully directly elected legislature. It also
proposes that the move to universal suffrage would
require the consent of the Chief Executive, two thirds of
the Legislature and the Standing Committee of the
National People's Congress. We shall need to press for
modifications which can command the confidence of the