56. In the view of Her Majesty's Government and the Hong Kong
Government this proposal does not meet the essential
requirements and would not therefore provide a fair and open
method of election.
57.
Following precisely the composition for the fourth sector
set out in paragraph 2 of Annex 1 of the Basic Law raises two
problems. First, the Basic Law model includes members of the
present Legislative Council, not all of whom have been elected. Second, it includes representatives of Hong Kong Deputies to
the National People's Congress and Hong Kong members of the
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference who have not been elected openly and fairly in Hong Kong; to include such people in the Election Committee simply by virtue of their
membership of these non-Hong Kong bodies would be a major
breach of the requirement that the Election Committee should be
composed of people who had themselves been elected openly and
fairly in Hong Kong.
58.
The voting method proposed by the Chinese side is
self-evidently restrictive and cumbersome.
59. Following the Foreign Secretary's meeting with the Chinese
Foreign Minister in July 1993, the British side introduced a
revised proposal on the Election Committee in Round eight of the
talks. This took account of the main Chinese point by proposing
that the Election Committee should be composed of four sectors
on the lines set out in Annex 1 of the Basic Law. The first
three sectors would be elected by grouping the 30 Functional
Constituencies into three groups of ten. Electors in each
Functional Constituency would then elect a number of members to
the Election Committee, as well as a Functional Constituency representative to the Legislative Council. On the fourth sector, the British side proposed that it should be returned by
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