SECRET
[HKBO12/4
40% 1990
wii loadi
1. The "notes" covered by Mr Paul's submission re thel result of telegraphic consultation with the Hong Kong Government. They are drafted in the turgid style customary in our exchanges with the Chinese in the Joint Liaison Group and on the Basic Law. There is no need for Ministers to study them carefully, but it would be helpful to have their endorsement of the negotiating objectives they embody. are as follows:-
These
(i) Voting procedures. We should try to get the
Chinese to drop their present proposals for differential voting, using the arguments in paragraph 4 of the note and any others we can think of. Failing that, paragraph 6 contains a fallback which would confine separate vote counting to Private Members Bills and Motions and then only on the request of at least one-third of members attending.
(ii)
(iii)
Grand Electoral College (GEC). We should not challenge the idea of including the GEC election in the Legislature (which was originally a British suggestion, though put forward in different circumstances). But we should try to get the Chinese to set out some acceptable principles for creating the GEC (paragraph 4 of the note) and, perhaps, to indicate its possible composition (paragraph 6). If this cannot be done in the time available (the Chinese may not yet have given sufficient thought to these detailed matters), we should seek to convince them that they should find other means of making it clear that the GEC will be a properly representative body constituted in an open way. If we had an overall agreement with them on seats etc, this would then enable us to get it started in an acceptable fashion.
Nationality requirement for Legislative Council membership. Ideally, we should try to get the Chinese to drop this requirement, but it is not inherently unreasonable and we should not press too hard. But we should urge the merits, in Hong Kong's special circumstances, of a 25% limit rather than the 15% which the Chinese have in mind.
In landm
1 February 1990
Cc: Mr Gillmore; Mr Lidington; Mr Paul, HKD.
MC7ABL
SECRET
R JT McLaren
27)