TNAG-1237-FCO40-1550-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 114

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the British equivalent.

Council. The nature of the judiciary is not set out. He

commented that while he had had a reply from Mr. Higginson,

none had yet come from NCNA! He assured me that he would

feel free to promote these ideas, and to underline the aims

on which they were based, to those whom he expected to meet

in Peking.

The mayor would be elected by the

7.

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Dr. Young is not affiliated to any political

group in Hong Kong; he feels most of them are self-seeking,

i.e. trying now to establish roles for themselves in any

future set-up. He considers that the Observers have almost

as bad a reputation in Hong Kong as Meeting Point in this

respect. Many of his students share his cynicism. (He

described the chairman of the latter as fascist-inclined)

8.

Dr. Young has few illusions about freedom of

political expression in contemporary China. He pointed

for instance to the recent trials after which the defendants

had been given lengthy jail sentences for "revolutionary

activities", (without any apparent legal basis). He also

said that while the Chinese authorities had in 1982

nominally invited the views of academics and others in

Hong Kong on the draft constitution, (and, here he referred

specifically to a discussion at the Chinese University

and to a subsequent visit to the north by one token Hong

Kong lady thereafter), their views had clearly counted

for nought.

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