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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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As for election of the Chief Executive, I am in favour of the Chief Executive being elected by a broadly representative Electoral College of 800-1000 without the necessity of any referendum taking place. The precise manner in which any Nomination or Election Committee should prepare a slate of candidates will have to be very carefully worked out.
Furthermore, we shall all have to watch closely the changes now in China to see what adjustments are necessary in future negotiations implementing the Joint Declaration and the drafting of the Basic Law.
Stronger safeguards against arbitrary imposition of martial law by Central Government in Hong Kong will have to be carefully reviewed in the interests of Hong Kong people. The horrible carnage of Beijing residents murdered by the People's Liberation Army soldiers should never be repeated in Hong Kong.
The overwhelming majority of Hong Kong people would want the People's Liberation Army soldiers to be stationed across the border, and not in Hong Kong itself. Britain should negotiate with China for the local Volunteer Defence Corps to be retained to support the Police Force to maintain internal security.
The Preamble to the Basic Law should clearly state that the Chinese Communist Party will not openly participate in Hong Kong's domestic political affairs and the Four Cardinal Principles or their equivalent should not apply to Hong Kong. Unless this is clearly stipulated in the Basic Law, Hong Kong's style of capitalistic economy and way of life and Hong Kong's status as an international centre of trade, tourism and finance, which is a vital factor to China's modernization, will always be at risk of erosion by the Chinese Communist Party.
Hong Kong people with their expertise, entrepreneurship and in-depth knowledge of China, can eventually expand the economic and commercial links between an integrated EEC and 1,200 million Chinese.
Mr. Chairman, we are today faced in Hong Kong with a crisis of confidence of unprecedented proportions, which will worsen if demonstrations and riots continue to disrupt normal life in many Chinese cities, and which will in varying degrees affect Hong Kong's economic ties in China.
It is therefore timely for the Governor to be in the United Kingdom to meet with the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary, the Foreign Affairs Committee, and other influential leaders to tell them of the anguish of the people of Hong Kong in their desperate search for personal freedom, democracy, the rule of law, social stability, and economic prosperity.
Meantime, we in Hong Kong can help to take care of ourselves in no better way than by remaining calm, and by exercising restraint and patience both as individuals and as groups, in our response to the heart-rending events of China.
On the Basic Law, since all consultations have ground to a halt because of the tragic events in China, I do not see the necessity for us today to have a full-dress debate on the second draft, and I believe that a postponement is in order.
However, I would like to make several points at this particular time. The development of representative government must be speeded up.
To enhance confidence, there will be need for monitoring machinery at the bilateral level between Britain and China, and also at the United Nations level, to ensure that the terms of the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law will be faithfully implemented for 50 years after 1997.
If China wishes to show its continued commitment to its 'Opening to the World and Reform' policy, and the 'One Country-Two Systems' concept, its leaders who are in power today or in the future, will have to learn from the lessons of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan in linking economic reform with political reform. Only time can tell whether China will be able to regain the confidence of Hong Kong people in the 'One Country-Two Systems' concept, which has been badly shaken by the Beijing Massacre.
I urge the British Government to negotiate with the Chinese Government as soon as practicable for China to join the signatories to the two International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights, and on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. The Hong Kong Government should make every effort to introduce into the next legislative session a draft ordinance on human rights or a Bill of Rights for public discussion and consultation and adoption.
Mr. Chairman, the massacre of thousands of unarmed Beijing residents has cast the gravest of doubts in the minds of the majority of Hong Kong people as to the credibility of the Joint Declaration and the draft Basic Law. We now have to rely on the British Government to restore whatever confidence that can be restored, and to ensure that Hong Kong will have a future after 1997, and that the rule of law, democratic rights, social stability, and economic prosperity will be given every support and protection.
I support the motion.
DR. ELSIE TU (in English):—Mr. Chairman, I have very little to add to what my colleagues have said. I have been angered and stunned by the tragic events of the past two weeks and the horrors still continuing in China. I see no purpose in commenting on the Basic Law for the future Hong Kong SAR while we are dealing with a Government that does not acknowledge the basic principles of human rights or the rule of law and kills its own citizens before the eyes of the world.
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