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Governor: I think, actually, you are wrong on the second point. I think they are in the process of leaving town. But shall we have a pact on these questions? You know perfectly well that the person to ask that question to is Mr Qian Qichen or Director Lu Ping. You know perfectly well that I and the Chief Secretary have always been extremely courteous and open in saying that we would meet senior leaders from China whenever they liked. It is senior leaders from China who appear to have diaries which are too busy, too blocked, to do what everybody in Hong Kong would like them to do. So you put the questions to them and I am sure you will get interesting answers.
As to the first point, I think that people in Hong Kong will, over the course of the next weeks, reach their own decisions about the openness and the transparency of the system for selecting a Chief Executive. If this is a good time for democracy, then perhaps the best way of underling that would be for Mr Qian to make it absolutely clear that the present Legislature will continue until the end of its natural term, rather than thrown away and replaced by a rubber-stamp.
On the other hand, if Mr Qian has it in mind to introduce electoral arrangements which are even more democratic than ours, I am sure the whole community would be interested in listening to that.
But I hope that Mr Qian and Director Lu enjoyed their visit to Hong Kong. I think it is the first - I hope the first of many visits which Mr Qian will make to Hong Kong - and I am sure they will have seen for themselves what a splendidly successful and stable community this is. I hope that they will get courteous receptions whenever they come and I very much hope, as well, that they will be able, during the course of their visits, to talk to the whole range of community opinion and not just some people from the community.
Question: Mr Patten, how do you think about the protest today outside the Convention Centre and why do the police have to move the protesters out from the Convention Centre? And is it the pressure from the Chinese Government?
Governor: You know perfectly well that that is a ludicrous thing to suggest. You know that perfectly well. Do you seriously suppose that I or the Chief Secretary would interfere in the decisions made about policing by the Commissioner of Police and his senior officers? I hope you won't start giving the impression that the way Hong Kong conducts its affairs, the way Hong Kong, for example, polices public assemblies and public demonstrations, is going to be changed by interventions from anyone. It is not.