receive him: on 20 October 1992. He explained his proposals and again emphasised the wish of Her Majesty's Government and
Hong Kong Government to discuss them with the Chinese side.
But Chinese leaders refused any such discussion. They later
demanded in public that the Governor should withdraw his
proposals before any discussion of electoral arrangements could
take place. In the following two months, the PRC-controlled press in Hong Kong mounted increasingly strident attacks on the
Governor and on his proposals, without offering any alternative
ideas. Statements from the Chinese side cast doubt on the
continuing validity after 1997 of Government contracts and franchises and suggested that China might begin to prepare alternative arrangements for the legislature in 1997. This
public campaign caused anxiety in the community in Hong Kong. The stock market fell temporarily, although Hong Kong's economic fundamentals remained strong.
17. At a press conference immediately after the Governor's
visit to Peking, a senior Chinese official claimed that the
Governor's proposals violated agreements and understandings
reached in exchanges of correspondence in early 1990 between
the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary and his Chinese
counterpart. To set the record straight, Her Majesty's
Government published the seven documents concerned. These
showed that the two sides had reached a common view that there
should be eighteen directly-elected seats in the Legislative
Council in 1991, but there was no agreement on electoral
arrangements for 1995. These were left open for future
discussion.
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