TNAG-1311-FCO40-1673-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1984 — Page 78

CONFIDENTIAL

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handled carefully. It would be counter-productive to give the impression of producing a school report on Deng's behaviour. But perhaps the idea of a progress report could be embodied in the regular statements made by the Governor. The Governor confirmed that there would continue to be occasions for such statements either by him or by visiting Ministers.

Mr. Q.W. Lee stressed the important of enabling the people of Hong Kong to be involved in the preparation of the Basic Law. He accepted that it was for the Chinese Government to draft this. But it was HMG's responsibility to ensure that the provisions of the Joint Declaration were properly reflected in it. It would be useful if the Hong Kong people could be consulted and participate in the work of drafting. The Foreign Secretary said that this must be handled sensitively. Our experience of the negotiations was that there was an absorptive process in Chinese thinking of which we could take advantage. This was the most effective way to influence them.

Mrs. Chow said that, as

as a member of LEGCO, she had not been privy to the negotiations and so shared some of the frustrations of ordinary members of the public. She generally accepted the agreement as a good working base. But it was important that both Governments should show that they had confidence in the ability of the Hong Kong people to govern themselves, so that there could be no question- mark over whether Hong Kong could, after 1997, function as an SAR. She also saw an important role for the Joint Liaison Group. People in Hong Kong wanted to see local participation in this. The Prime Minister said that a delicate balancing act had to be performed on representative government. There must be progress towards it while HMG's responsibility was at the same time unmistakably maintained. The Foreign Secretary added that the question of possible local participation in the Joint Liaison Group was something which would need to be handled with great subtlety with the Chinese Government if an unhelpful reaction was to be avoided. It must be for HMG to decide how best to carry this forward. The Prime Minister said that there was a link between the two points raised by Mrs. Chow. The better the structures of representative government, the greater the confidence the Hong Kong people could have that their views would be fed into the Joint Liaison Group.

Miss Tam raised her concern about the possible incompatibility between the Chinese constitution and the basic law. This applied particularly to Article 31 of the Chinese Constitution. Mr. Allen Lee mentioned the concern aroused by statements from the New China News Agency that the drafting of the basic law was an internal Chinese matter. Mrs. Tam mentioned concern about the protection of human rights. The Hong Kong people needed reassurance that their life style and freedom would remain. Mr. Andrew So hoped that the Prime Minister would be able to tell the people of Hong Kong, after her visit to Peking that the entitlements of British nationals would not be eroded. Prime Minister took note of all these points.

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