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Reference
have them form part of any other province's delegation, which would imply some form of political subordination to that province.
This
4. The problem is that there is no suitable provision in any exisiting Chinese legislation of which I am aware. The Electoral Law was last revised in December 1986. It states quite clearly that "Deputies to the NPC shall be elected by the People's Congresses of Provinces, Autonomous Regions and Municipalities directly under the Central Government and by the PLA" (Article 13). There is no reference anywhere in the Law to the situation in Special Administrative Regions such as would be set up under Article 31 of the Constitution. The current Electoral Law was revised after the signature of the Joint Declaration, when it was clear that an SAR would be established in Hong Kong after 1997. However for China's present purposes, there is no need to legislate for a body that is not yet in existence. I presume that the Chinese will seek, nearer the time, to amend or revise the Electoral Law to cater for the SARS of Hong Kong and Macao. will cause the Chinese legislators some problems as the Electoral Law gives detailed provisions for the electoral procedures at the various levels of Chinese local government administration which are very different from the system that will pertain in the Hong Kong SAR. The Chinese will have to decide whether the LegCo of the new SAR should be responsible for the election of NPC deputies, which would roughly parallel the system on the mainland, or whether there should be a more direct form of election of such deputies.
The question would also arise of what amendments, if any, would be necessary to the Basic Law if the powers of LegCo were to be expanded to include selection of NPC deputies. Furthermore, according to Chinese practise, NPC deputies "shall be subjected to supervision by the voters and the respective electoral units from their constituencies" (Article 40). Arrangements will need to be made to make the Kong Kong NPC deputies properly responsible to voters of Hong Kong. So long as Britain remains in control of Hong Kong up to 30 June 1997, I do not see how the Chinese could conduct elections to their soveriegn state body in a territory over which they had not yet recovered soveriegnty. But this could put Hong Kong's NPC delegates in an awkward postion immediately after 1 July 1997 as they could then still technically be part of the Guangdong M. delegation and subject to recall by Guangdong provincial People's Congress, which might imply some sort of subordinate relationship between Hong Kong and Guangdong.
The B.L.
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rembeship 19
RF Wye
Far Eastern Section
Research & Analysis Dept ОАВ 2/125 210 6219/6216 24 February 1992
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