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as they
that
Hong Kong's District Boards who themselves will be directly elected. The Governor told the CRC that the key point is that
members of the Election Committee should themselves be
elected. The CRC may claim to the Prime Minister - did to the press after their meeting with the Governor the Governor had agreed to a revised composition of the Election Committee, along the lines of the four categories envisaged in the Basic Law. This is not in fact the case. If the CRC attempt to raise this point again, the Prime Minister might say that the Governor has made clear that the key issue is for the members of the Election Committee to be elected. The Governor is willing to consider any proposed composition for the Committee which ensures this, although at the moment his own proposal is the simplest one on the table.
As the Prime Minister knows, we may be on the point of re-engaging the Chinese in diplomatic discussions. This
remains confidential and should not be revealed to the CRC delegation (although if discussions do go ahead, we do plan to announce the fact publicly).
The CRC's call on the Prime Minister is likely to dominate the news in Hong Kong in a quiet week there (Chinese New Year). The Governor hopes that the Prime Minister will give a firm restatement of support for his proposals. The Governor suggests that the public handling of the delegation's call on the Prime Minister should be low-key, His advice is that the Prime Minister should not agree to a photocall with Allen Lee or accompany him to the door at the end of the call. Foreign Secretary proposes to speak to the press after the meeting, as a precaution in case Allen Lee should make public a distorted version of the discussion (as he has done in the past).
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