CHINESE THREATS TO BREAK OFF TALKS IF WE INTRODUCE LEGISLATION?
And we
We would regret that and see no cause for it. I have told
the Chinese Foreign Minister that we want to continue
discussion of the remaining, more difficult, issues.
have proposed a further round of talks later this month for
that purpose.
We would prefer to be able to proceed on the basis of
agreement with China on the basis of the Joint Declaration.
Legislation we are introducing is uncontroversial and
demonstrably urgent.
WHY WAS LEGCO VOTING METHOD THE MAKE-OR-BREAK ISSUE?
We made it clear to the Chinese early on, that an interim
agreement would only be of practical use to us if it
included all the urgent Legco issues as well, including the
LegCo voting method. That would then buy us a little more
time to continue discussing the more complicated issues.
The single-seat, single-vote system for LegCo is widely favoured in Hong Kong: in LegCo itself and in the community.
If we had left it out of an interim package, the package
would probably have been amended by LegCo.
Not the only issue: we had also not reached a satisfactory
understanding on the abolition of appointed membership.
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