XN000022-1996-01-08 — Page 22

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Mr Albert Ho (in Chinese): I hope that the Foreign Secretary can be more specific. First, in relation to the first point. That is the stance, whether the stance, the existing stance of the Chinese Government is against the Joint Declaration?

Second point. I hope that you will be able to achieve something in China this time and you don't have to bring the whole matter up at the Human Rights Commission. But if we fail to get a satisfactory reply we will become very worried. Are there any reasons why you would refrain from taking this to the Human Rights Commission? In other words, what are the reasons if you were to reject our suggestion?

Mr Rifkind: I indicated, and I thought I'd indicated clearly, but I'm happy to try and improve, that we believe that any proposal to dilute the Bill of Rights Ordinance is not only undesirable but unreasonable. The Bill of Rights Ordinance merely implements the international convention, the international convention is accepted under the Joint Declaration and therefore we believe that that should be the end of the discussion. I note that all we have at the moment is a recommendation from a sub-committee which the Chinese Government have not yet endorsed and I welcome the fact that they have not yet endorsed that. It doesn't mean that they won't, but they have not done so and I hope that that means that they are giving very careful consideration to the various representations that have been received, both from Hong Kong and from the United Kingdom Government, and I will certainly be using my visit to Peking to explore further with them their thinking on this issue. I hope very much that they will accept the views that have been expressed, both by yourselves and by others in Hong Kong and by the British Government. If that proved not to be the case then we would obviously want to consider what could be done. I can assure you that our decision will be based on what will best help Hong Kong, that will be the criteria we will apply and I will be willing to consider either the question of a resolution or other possibilities and will consider them against the criteria of will they help the human rights situation in Hong Kong, will they help us to advance the objective which we all agree is the one we are trying to achieve and that is the basis on which I would consider the suggestion that LegCo has made.