CODE RAD
نيا
Mr Ricketts HKD
pa. Constitutional Development
(White Paper)
Reference.
UNCLASSIFIED
MUB OM 10/1
RECEIVER (3
- 2 SEP 1993
DESK OFFICKE
NEW FILE 10
Points incorporated
3:
DRAFT WHITE PAPER THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY IN HONG KONG.
1.
19. I found this draft a very clear statement of the British position on democratic developments and the course of the talks on the question. I do not have many comments of substance.
2. Paragraph 12 deals with the negotiation over the number of directly elected seats to the Legislative Council. Is it worth saying that we made it clear to the Chinese at the time that we were not fully satisfied with the outcome (18 seats in 1991) and that we would be raising the question of numbers again? This point is picked up in paragraph 16. It does of course beg the question of why we did not push harder for more directly elected seats. judged that we would not be able to persuade the Chinese and, as I understood it, one of the implicit concessions to the Chinese in the Governor's proposals was that the composition of the 1995 Legislative Council would conform in terms of numbers to the Basic
Law.
3. The "through train" is a fundamental concept. It is first introduced in paragraph 16 but without any clear explanation of what it involves. I think the paragraph should be expanded to make that clear, especially that the members of the Legislative Council elected in 1995 should be eligible to become members of the first Legislative Council of the SAR until new elections are held in 1999. The Chinese position on the Basic Law was even stronger than that given in this paragraph. They held that it could not be changed until after the handover in 1997.
We
4. Paragraph 22 refers to holding back publication of the draft legislation while talks were going on. Should we not try to make a little more of this? I presume the intention of the paper is to show that we bent over backwards to reach a negotiated settlement. Our willingness not to proceed with these steps is clear evidence of the efforts we have made.
5.
Some minor typos etc:
Para 10 line 7: 1995 not 1958
Para 13 line 8: clear not clean
Para 24 line 1: something else for "sparing"
Para 26 line 7: "and were based"
UNCLASSIFIED