22-NOV-1989

16:53

GENERAL DUTIES BRANCH HKG

CHINESE LANGUAGE DIVISION

852 5 840 1976

565 P04

P.03

- 3

4: Mr. SZETO Wah made some response to what you said yesterday. He

thinks that Article 23 in the Basic Law Draft has already made provisions. It is not necessary to make any further addition to it. What is your opinion about that?

A: Yesterday, some media misquoted what I said. One TV station

reported that I am of the opinion that members directly elected to the Legislature must be Chinese nationals, or there should be a certain proportion of Chinese nationals. This is not my idea. What I said was some friends in Hong Kong have this idea. They had this idea long ago. For instance, some Hong Kong drafters of the

Basic Law consider direct election to be an execution of a citizen's

right and the execution of a citizen's rights and nationality are

As regards × inseparable. They have been holding this view all along.

election by functional constituency, it can be regarded as a legal person and need not be restricted by nationality. Furthermore, some BLCC members have all along insisted that the legislature should be

composed of Chinese nationals

because allegiance is involved.

district board delegation has also made a suggestion that a certain

should be maintained between Chinese nationals and Họng

ratio

A

Kong residents with foreign nationalities in the Legislative Council.

My understanding of this is that they thought the proportion of Hong

Kong residents with foreign nationalities should not be too large.

I told them yesterday that some people of Hong Kong hold such a

view.

these

Some friends have made such a suggestion.

suggestion. I said, "Should we not link!

problems with the present internationalization of the question

of Hong Kong where a large number of people want to obtain foreign

passports? We should carefully consider that as a specific issue."

I do not have a firm view yet and I have not said that we must make

such a provision.

/What

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