18 August 1992
SECRET
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Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
BY FAX
Mr Peter Lai
Deputy Secretary for Constitutional Affairs
Government Secretariat
HONG KONG
London SWIA 2AH
Telephone: 071-
Dear In Lai,
CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS WORKING GROUP
1.
In his letter of 14 August Nigel Cox said that I would be offering one or two thoughts on the papers discussed on 6 August. We do not wish to test further your tolerance of "working-level views from London", so let me confine myself to three points:
(a) Election Committee: Just to reinforce the point that we need to keep in mind that the voting-system used by the Committtee, although less obviously exciting than the Committtee's composition, will be a significiant element in the eventual package.
(b) Nationality restrictions: If we were to go down the path of setting restrictions in 1995, the DAB option would seem the least obnoxious. But the necessary amendment of the Letters Patent could be controversial here. On consultation, perhaps we could usefully take the line with the Chinese that we cannot begin to consider whether we could address this point until they define Chinese nationality in a way which takes account of Hong Kong's "history and realities"
(c) "Government Business Committee": You know the CRC far better than I, but I do wonder how far they would risk pushing their opposition to this innovation. Given their electoral ambitions in 1995, would they want to take a wholly obstructive approach towards the efficient exercise of government business?
You
Усни ега,
Kay Saunders
KAM Saunders
Hong Kong Department
c. Sir J. Coles
plai.ks.18aug.CONS
NJC
SECRET