Final
сорту
Civicluding
paura on the CRA) is on Relsw. Parliament file
DRAFT LETTER FROM LORD CAITHNESS TO SELECTED PEERS AND
MPS
I wanted to bring you up-to-date on some important
developments during the recess in Hong Kong, particularly the elections for a new Legislative Council and their
implications for the governing of Hong Kong.
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You will have seen the press reports of the Prime
Minister's visit to China and Hong Kong from 1-5
September. We have laid in the library of the House
copies of the Memorandum of Understanding on the new
airport which he signed in Peking (the text was unchanged
from that we announced and published on 4 July), and of
the joint communique recording other points agreed during
that visit. The success of this visit has been a shot in
the arm for Hong Kong. Uncertainties over the airport
project the largest in the world have now been
cleared away and there is a new mood of confidence about
the future. The Chinese Government renewed their
commitment to the spirit as well as the letter of the Joint Declaration and agreed to speed up work in the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group (JLG), which is making the practical arrangements to implement the guarantees
for Hong Kong's autonomy set out in the Joint Declaration
and the Basic Law. One other result of the Prime
Minister's visit was the release of a Hong Kong businessman imprisoned in Canton on charges of helping dissidents to leave China.
Since that visit, Hong Kong has held its first direct elections to the Legislative Council. I have read
suggestions that the outcome was an embarrassment for the