the gap.
After these amendments, the British side's nine
proposed constituencies were.
79. In the view of Her Majesty's Government and the Hong Kong Government, these revised proposals would produce fair and open function constituency elections based on constituencies of substantial size and importance in the community. They would therefore meet the requirements set out in paragraph 74..
above.
Nationality Provision
80.
The Chinese side proposed in round nine of the talks that the Hong Kong Government should implement the nationality provision of the Basic Law in 1995, two years before the Basic
Law comes into force. The nationality provision provides that permanent residents of the Region who are not of Chinese nationality or who have the right of abode in foreign countries may be elected to the Legislative Council "provided that the
proportion of such members does not exceed 20% of the total membership of the Council".
81.
The British side made clear that it would not be possible to discriminate in this way against British nationals in
elections held in 1995 while Hong Kong was still under British
sovereignty. They added that it would not be practicable to take steps in advance of 1 July 1997 to implement the provision from that date. The nationality status of individual members
of the legislature could change between the elections in 1995
statememt26.8/BRIEFS/NJH
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