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thereafter, 18 directly elected seats (out of a total of 60) were
introduced into the Legislative Council in the Autumn of 1991, this
number to rise to 20 in 1995. None of this meets the aspirations now
aroused among the most enthusiastic proponents of democracy.
It has,
however, led to
to the establishment of political parties to fight
elections for the first time in Hong Kong's history. The Bill of
Rights was enacted in [late 1991?). All this greatly disturbs China.
She expected to inherit a traditionally politically quiescent Hong
Kong and now finds that she will be taking on something rather
different.
14.
Meanwhile, the rate of emigration from Hong Kong increased in
1990, as a direct result of the events on the mainland, from a recent
annual rate of some 40,000 to 60,000. Most of these people are from
the business, commercial and professional classes who make Hong Kong
function as it presently does. Some are essential workers from the
public sector and the latter in particular, as members of the Services
who will have to change their allegiance to the Government of the SAR
1 July 1997, may have an increasing problem with the maintenance of
morale.
15. To add to these ingredients for a potentially difficult last five
and a half years of colonial administration, there is a growing suspicion in the Territory of British motives in her dealings with
China over Hong Kong. This was seen, for example, in 1989 in demands
for the work of the JLG to be open to public scrutiny.
If this were
to develop into anti-British feeling as 1997 approaches, it would have
implications for the British Garrison, as the most obvious example of
British presence and interests in the Territory. In addition, there is scope for the interests of HMG and the HKG to diverge as, for example, they seemed to do for a time after Tiananmen Square on the
question of British Nationality and Vietnamese Migrants. The latter
are a further destabilising factor which Hong Kong could well do without as it approaches 1997; widespread opinion in Hong Kong during the period of very high arrival rates in 1989 was that the Garrison
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