9 November 1992
HONG KONG
MANZ 21212
DEMOCRATIC
R
FOUNDATI
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF HONG KONG
Ms. Seander's fl
pa Crastik 218 Sept Copy Polit. Parke (PUR) (HRDF)
With the recent friction between Britain and China over the progress of democratisation in Hong Kong, many people in Hong Kong will be dismayed and wonder whether the proposals in Governor Patten's speech are in Hong Kong's best interests.
It has been suggested that the proposals for the Election Committee to select 10 members of the Legislative Council in 1995 breach a prior agreement between the sovereign powers. And it has also been argued that this proposal and that for the new functional constituencies to be elected by the entire working population of Hong Kong are in conflict with the "spirit" of the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law.
The Foundation believes that the people of Hong Kong can take heart. The correspondence between Britain and China on the subject of the 1995 Election Committee shows that no agreement between the two powers was reached before negotiations broke off. The Foundation also believes that the proposals are not in breach of the Joint Declaration or the Basic Law. The proposals for the Election Committee and the functional constituencies are fully in accordance with both documents.
1995 Election Committee
The proposal is that the 1995 Election Committee should be comprised of directly elected District Board members. Annex II of the Basic Law provides that the 1999 Election Committee shall be the Election Committee described in Annex I for the election of the Chief Executive of the SAR Government. This Election Committee (the Annex. I model) is comprised of 800 members from certain specified social and business sectors, an entirely different system from the one the Governor has proposed. It has been claimed that Britain agreed to follow the Annex I model in its establishment of the 1995 Election Committee, and that such agreement has now been breached.
The disclosure of the hitherto secret letters between the two powers clarifies this matter. The Foundation believes that the letters show that the two sovereign powers were working towards an agreement to the effect that the Annex I model would be followed in the 1995 Election Committee. Indeed, it is quite possible that if negotiations had continued after 12 February 1990 an actual agreement to that effect would have been reached. However, the negotiations did not continue, and the letters show that there was no agreement.
Just how close the two sides came to an agreement can be seen from this extract from Mr Hurd's final letter on the subject of 12 February 1990:
1
HKD-
ALLO
805 1015 Fax: 5432810
7/F.. Jim's Commercial Building. 104 Des Voeux Road Central. Honda
香港出讀德韩道中104號詹氏大優七電話: 305 1015