RESTRICTED
Background
Mdsau
1. Macau's new Governor, General Rocha Vieira, was
appointed by President Soares in March. After his arrival in April he appointed a new team of Under-Secretaries to
head the Macanese administration. There are signs that the
new team will be more effective than their predecessors and
that Macau will adopt a more coherent policy in its dealings
with China (the Chinese have in the past expressed
exasperation at the inefficiency of their Portuguese
interlocutors; they have also complained of a unilateral land decision straddling 1997).
2. Key problems facing Macau are language (very little of
Macau's law has yet been translated from Portuguese into
Chinese and there are no Chinese lawyers) and localisation
of the civil service (in which all the senior posts are held
by Portuguese). The first draft of Macau's Basic Law is due to be published in late August. Many important provisions
will probably follow the precedent of the Hong Kong Basic
Law.
Hong Kong Bill of Rights
3. Following the passing of the Bill of Rights by LegCo on
5 June, the Chinese Government made a statement regretting
the British Side's action "which would adversely affect the
implementation of the Hong Kong SAR's Basic Law". They
reserved the right to examine after 1997 all Hong Kong laws
in accordance with the Basic Law. This was a fairly low-key reaction and probably the best we could have hoped for: at
one time it seemed likely that the Chinese would denounce
the Bill and declare their intention to repeal it in 1997.
Hong Kong Department
10 June 1991
CC1ACG/2
RESTRICTED