а
speech two weeks in advance, their request that they should
consulted (which in their eyes
be
probably
meant
negotiation) before the speech was delivered was rejected.
This was contrary to previous practice and, as they saw it,
to provisions in the Joint Declaration, which required
closer consultation in the later stages of the transitional
period. The substance of the proposals, by greatly widening
the electorate, in their view contravened earlier Sino-
British understandings expressed in the Joint Declaration,
the Basic Law and the exchanges of letters on directly
elected seats of 1989-1990. (The British naturally
contested this reading). The Chinese rejected the right of
Legco, to them a purely advisory body, to pronounce on the
future of their territory. To them the reforms and the
manner of their promulgation represented a 180 degree turn
in British policy on cooperation and convergence. They went
further and claimed to detect a conspiracy aiming to
enhance Hong Kong's independence and spread the virus of
democracy to the mainland. The fact that the United States,
Canadian and Australian governments warmly endorsed the
Governor's constitutional plans confirmed Peking in the
instinctive suspicion that there was international backing
for such a plot.
A confrontation rapidly developed. On the Chinese
side there was sustained invective and threats of
abolishing the legislature in 1997 if the new arrangements
were implemented and setting up before that date a "second
kitchen", that is an alternative centre of authority for
There could be little doubt of the
the territory.