FOREIGN SEC:
SPRICH
HONG KONG GEBERAL CHAXBER OF COMMERCE 15 JANUARY 1990
POREIGN SECRETARY (CONTD);
I turn, if I may now, Mr. Chairman, briefly, to the Basic
Law, the drafting of which has now reached an important phase:
Throughout this process, people in Hong Kong have expressed
their opinions about the draft in a thorough and constructive way
and I think that this is admirable and I congratulate them on the
response from the political community here which is obviously
increasingly mature and that means that the views of that community
deserve the closest possible attention from those who are actually
responsible for drafting the Basic Law. The outcome is a matter of
major concern to us. It will be a Chinese law but our
responsibilies as co- signatories of the Joint Declaration mean that
we have the greatest possible interest in a law intended to carry
out that Agreement, so the drafting of the Basic Law is matter for
China, but that does not prevent us taking every suitable
opportunity to get across our views and in doing so we have always
respected the view of the Chinese Government that this should be
doue privately and in confidence.
Our key section of the Basic Law is the chapter on the future
political structure and it is quite understandable that it should
have become the focus of debate in Hong Kong because its provisions
will bave a crucial effect on what people here feel about the Basic
Law as a whole, so it is right that the community here should have
expressed its views fully and vigorously and it is encouraging that
as people search for consensus and compromise on this, a number of
constructive proposals should have come out from the community in
Hong Kong and I think that is to the credit of everyone who worked
Vana ཀ་་
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