1.6.
govern effectively by law, an unwillingness to be subjected to law, and a reticence or refusal (which is often understandable, given the use of force including machine guns and tanks against unarmed civilians) to question in many circumstances the legitimacy of ideas emanating from the fountainhead of socialist authority, the Chinese Communist Party. To quote a friend of mine who works on Soviet law in the FCO, the result is a sort of "now-you-see-it-now-you-don't" legal system, the central influence on which can be obscured where the visitor takes the terms of the written law as her or his inevitable starting point. Put shortly, the PRC legal system requires realistic appraisal, and if as Hong Kong and British lawyers and administrators, we are not by implication to compromise on our own understanding of due process and natural justice, there seems to be a need to find a way of ensuring constructively that the basic systemic differences are understood, and not ignored. "One country, two systems", to use the vernacular.
This brings me to my meeting at the PRC Ministry of Justice. During this visit to China, I was the official guest of the All China Lawyers' Association, and the ACLA falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice. In the meeting, I sought to make the point that while there had been discussions between lawyers in Britain and lawyers from China which covered issues in general terms, detailed discussion on matters of principle was possible only on the basis of an open dialogue, which would consider the sort of issues that lawyers in the rest of the world discuss with colleagues from elsewhere, but which PRC lawyers have for some reason preferred to avoid. One major point of all this is that today in Hong Kong it is necessary to raise the level of trust and understanding with the PRC, and there really is only one way to do so, and that is to tell it straight and deal with the difficult issues.
1.7.
I had a meeting at the PRC Ministry of Personnel too. Over 3 hours, we discussed a series of matters. The Ministry has had some responsibilities within the process of setting up and implementing the Civil Service system within China; on behalf of the State Council, it has administered senior civil servants and persons responsible for institutions; it drafted the schemes for the reform of government structures and proposals for the "functional adjustment of governmental administrative organs". It has formulated policies in this regard. The Ministry is also in charge of co-ordinating the PRC personnel system, as well as reforms taking place in enterprises and institutions. Also, it is in charge of the "co-ordination of the policies regarding intellectuals", which sounds rather grim15 Other tasks include human resource management and job assignment. Again, it was a productive meeting, and an enjoyable one. Among other things, we discussed the issue of neutrality in the civil service, which is something the Chinese system does not have, but which the Hong Kong and U.K. systems do have. The PRC emphasis on the "political stance" of employees may become relevant post-1997; though under the U.K.-PRC