SECRET
We
7. We would be grateful for clarification as to whether it is the intention to include in the 15% permanent residents who are not ethnic Chinese but who have a right of abode only in Hong Kong. assume that this is not the intention since for the purposes of the principle of "Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong" such persons could be considered only as Hong Kong people.
8. It is also not clear how the proposed 15% rule will be implemented. The electoral law of the SAR will need to prescribe
the procedures in detail. It is the view of the British side that such legal stipulations will inevitably be complicated and inflexibile. For example there would be great difficulty if the number of successful candidates who were foreign nationals or had a right of abode in foreign countries exceeded the proposed ceiling, in deciding which of the candidates should be asked to step down in order to meet the 15% rule and how the vacancies thus created should
be filled.
[The following is to be used only if the Chinese insist on retaining these restrictions.]
9.
The Chinese side may wish to give serious consideration to measures that will alleviate local concerns over the adverse effects
of such restrictions. If the ceiling were set at, say, 25%, a greater number of non-Chinese permanent residents who have talent and experience and are dedicated to the well-being of the HKSAR will be able to contribute to the work of the Legislative Council and there would be less likelihood, in practice, of finding a situation where the number of elected members in the restricted category exceeded the limit proscribed in the Basic Law. Nevertheless the practical difficulties of implementation remain: a system for dealing with the possibility of more candidates in the restricted
category being elected than the Basic Law allowed for would still
have to be found.
1 February 1990
TOMATT
SECRET