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to enforce in an acceptable way: they could lead to
high-profile and emotional confrontations on the streets of
Hong Kong. The proposed amendments would both make for more effective and flexible policing and bring the POO more closely into line with HMG's International obligations (the
ICCPR). However the timing was delicate for our relations
with China. Hong Kong wanted to get the amendments through
before a new, more liberal Legislative Council was in place.
But this would have made them public just before the
enactment of the Bill of Rights and at a difficult phase in
the airport negotiations, so we eventually persuaded the Governor to defer their introduction, until the new LegCo
session.
B 5. Hong Kong now propose to put the Public Order
(amendment) Bill 1991 to the Executive Council in November
and to introduce it into LegCo in December. As has
been clear throughout,handling may not be easy: the liberals
may well argue that the amendments do not go far enough and that the POO will remain too repressive. But Hong Kong believe this to be manageable.
C, D, E
6.
Hong Kong, Peking and UKREP JLG all agree that, despite
the improvement in the atmosphere since May, the Chinese will probably still dislike the proposed amendments. They
may see them as a liberalisation measure which facilitates
demonstrations against their interests or even as a move to
undermine Article 23 of the Basic Law which stipulates that the SAR will enact laws to prevent subversion. They will study carefully how the LegCo liberals react to the proposals and be suspicious of HKG/LegCo collaboration. we can somewhat reduce the prospects of negative Chinese
reaction by tactful advanced briefing. The Chinese may
still grumble publicly, but they cannot frustrate
But
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