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CALL ON MR GOODLAD BY FIELD MARSHALL THE LORD BRAMALL: 30 JUNE 1993
Those Present
НКО забле
RE!
Lord Bramall
1 0 JUL 1993
IND.
A
193
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142.
Constitutional Proposals
1.
China
Lord Bramall said that many people, especially lawyers, were worried over Hong Kong. He could see the political pressures on HMG (which had not existed in past years) to introduce democracy to Hong Kong. But he wanted to be certain that the UK was not breaking the spirit of any agreement and giving China an excuse to ignore the Joint Declaration after 1997. Lord Shawcross was emphatic that the proposals for constitutional change went against existing agreements. was already committed to universal suffrage by 2007 and progressive increases in the number of directly elected seats in LegCo mapped out. He could not see how the new proposals fitted in. Until talks had opened recently, the UK had been attempting to change the system without consultation with China.
2. Mr Goodlad denied that HMG was under pressure. But it was no longer true that the Hong Kong people did not worry about democracy. They had done so since Tiananmen Square at least. The proposals had not been put forward by the Governor in order to change anything. They were necessary to fill gaps which existed in the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law. Nor had this been done without consultation. The Chinese had seen the
However, it proposals in advance but had not discussed them. would not have been right to keep the proposals secret from the
The people of Hong Kong in advance of discussions with China. Governor had the support of the bulk of people in Hong Kong. Although China said that the proposals were inconsistent with the Joint Declaration, the Basic Law and the 1990 bilateral correspondence, they had not been able to show where these supposed inconsistencies existed. HMG maintained, on lawyers' advice, that they were consistent.
3. Lord Bramall wondered whether the UK was changing direction in pressing for more directly elected seats earlier than agreed. Mr Goodlad said that the Basic Law had acknowledged an increase in the number of such seats: HMG had been pressing
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