SECRET AND PERSONAL
รา
Hong Kong), who unfortunately was suffering from ill health. Wang also asked about the role of the JLG; I said that of course the JLG would have formal discussions on things like pension fund, but I did not think that JLG is the right forum for things like principal officials.
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4.
For the rest of the meal, which was very pleasant, we talked quite a lot about localisation of the civil service. We explained carefully to Wang the background to our recent decision on changing the definition of "local" emphasising that this was a temporary expedient forced on us, and reiterated that it was a genuine wish to move to uniform terms and conditions for civil service appointments
and to consult the Chinese side on them. We also talked about the need to speed up localising the senior echelons of the Legal Department, and the difficulties we had in trying to attract experienced local Counsel. Wang showed a fair amount of interest in our explanation, but (true to form) did not himself say much of substance. Zhang Xiaoming proved to be a bright young lad, and asked a fair bit of probing questions.
5.
So all in all, a marker was put down with Wang on our wish to develop a confidential dialogue on the civil service which, given the will on both sides, could follow the successful path of the confidential financial dialogue. Whether the Chinese side will take it up remains to be
I suspect we would not hear anything on it from Wang for a while; I do not think they would make up their minds one way or the other until the electoral talks are out of
the way.
seen.
c.c.
(Michael C C Sze)
Secretary for Constitutional Affairs
(PERSONAL COVERS)
Sir R McLaren, MA Peking
CS
Mrs Anson Chan
PA
Mr Peter Ricketts
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