open and acceptable to the people of Hong Kong.
It
8. The Governor's proposals were well received in Hong Kong. Despite the hostile Chinese reaction, we persevered with efforts to get talks underway and eventually agreed a basis for talks, which opened in April 1993. The second part of this White Paper gives a full account of these talks.
shows that we were prepared to make significant moves on two important aspects of the Governor's proposals, the Functional Constituencies and the Election Committee, provided that the
overall package met our essential requirements. It also shows that the Chinese side were not willing to make any significant move to bridge the gap. The third part of the White Paper analyses in more detail the specific proposals advanced by
both sides.
9.
The balance sheet is clear. Our proposals, even after substantial revisions in an effort to meet Chinese concerns,
would produce electoral arrangements that were fair, open and
acceptable to the people of Hong Kong. The Chinese side's proposals as they emerged in the talks would not. Stripped of
the arcane detail, they proposed electoral arrangements which would have restricted choice and maximised China's capacity to
influence the result. They proposed retaining appointed
membership on the District Boards and Municipal Councils,
despite the unpopularity of this system in Hong Kong. They proposed freezing all development in the 21 existing functional constituencies, despite the evidence that tiny
franchises can lead to corruption and vote-rigging. They proposed that, learning nothing from experience, the nine new functional constituencies should be formed in the same way. They proposed a byzantine system open to manipulation for the Election Committee to return 10 members of the Legislative
Council. They proposed a voting method for the geographical constituencies blatantly tilted to ensure that the less
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