2.E. BEIJING CRYPTEK
THI LE H1 42 1:
PG.14
SECRET
7.
on
In any case I trust that you will now accept that there is no obstacle in the Basic Law or NPC Decisions to our agreeing
that the 1995 Election Committee should be constituted in the
way I have proposed. of course you have also argued that
there is a political obstacle arising from a statement made by the Foreign Secretary in his message of xx February 1990 to Foreign Minister Qian Qichen.
However we have already spent
Many hours discussing the two sides' views of the status of
that exchange of correspondence. And even if we wera to accept your interpretation that the outcome of the exchange constituted a definite and binding agreement and that one element of this was a British undertaking in principle to introduce an Election Committee in 1995 broadly on the lines subsequently set out in Annex I para 2, you surely cannot contend that we are obliged to follow automatically and
slavishly every detail of that paragraph? That is immobilism.
Surely our two sides have a responsibility to use our
intelligences, to learn from experience, to take account of practical realities and of special historical circumstances, and, as Vice-Premier Qian Qichen put it to Mr Hurd, to show
creativity ? Only in this way can we hope to agree a set of practical, feasible and appropriate electoral arrangements which will meet the interests and wishes of the people of Hong
Kong and contribute to a smooth transition.
8. So here too the ball is in the Chinese court. We have
explained our proposals for a four-sector Election Committee,
including our proposals for its fourth sector. These are