4.29.
4.30.
4.31.
government will not station people in Hong Kong to directly administer these affairs.
What does "directly" imply? I would like to know more.
(e) Election Practice
The first SAR Chief Executive will be elected prior to 30th June, 1997. Writing in 1988 in the context of the drafting of the Basic Law, a member of the PRC Basic Law Drafting Committee wrote as follows:-
"There is also the difficult problem of how China is to conduct elections during the transition period, while Britain is still responsible for Hong Kong's administrative supervision. We cannot allow the present Hong Kong government to substitute for us in supervising the elections. Electing the SAR governmental personnel and legislature is an important Chinese internal affair. Allowing the Hong Kong government to fulfill China's role would permit foreign elements to interfere in China's internal affairs and would injure China's national sovereignty. If the Basic Law does not resolve this issue, then all of its provisions will be meaningless scraps of paper.
I do not understand what this is meant to imply. Perhaps it is just the tone which seems so unpleasant and offensive. Is it meant to apply to the 1995 Legco elections? Is the Hong Kong government being bullied? The passage is from an academic paper; so I imagine it does not represent an official attitude. As to substance, OMELCO has said: -
"As the Basic Law will leave the detailed electoral provisions to
the electoral laws of the HKSAR, Members are of the view that the electoral laws should enshrine the principles of true democratic elections including open nomination process with minimal restrictions on candidature, universal franchise, one man one vote, secret ballot, fair and open methods of counting votes, safeguards against corrupt and illegal practiggs, and impartiality in the drawing of electoral boundaries, etc.'
I do not suppose that the PRC has expertise in these matters.
(f)
Citizenship and Representative Institutions
In Part One of Annex One to the Joint Declaration, it is provided that the "government and legislature of the Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region shall be composed of local inhabitants". The term "local inhabitants" is undefined, unrestricted and unqualified. Articles 55 and 61 of the Basic Law for Hong Kong provide in relation to the membership of the Executive Council, and in relation to the "principal