TNAG-1372-FCO40-1818-Ministerial-visits-from-the-UK-to-Hong-Kong-1985 — Page 25

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Background

8.

Government

undertakes

that

By paragraph 3(12) of Joint Declaration the Chinese

the policies in the Joint

Declaration and in Annex I will be stipulated in a Basic Law of

the Hong Kong SAR and will remain unchanged for 50 years.

9.

The Chinese Government have said that they intend to

complete the Basic Law by 1990. They have appointed a Basic

Law Drafting Committee, chaired by Ji Pengfei, Head of the Hong

Kong and Macau office of the State Council, and which includes

23 Hong Kong representatives among its 59 members. They have

also agreed to the formation of a 150 member Basic Law

Consultative Committee in Hong Kong, members of which are to be

nominated by representative organisations in various fields.

We believe that most of the actual drafting work will be done

by officials of the Hong Kong

Kong and Macau

and Macau Office, but it is

encouraging that the Chinese have

far shown themselves

reasonably sensitive to Hong Kong opinion.

10.

We have no standing in the drafting of Basic Law, and

the Chinese are very sensitive to any suggestion that we can

dictate policies for the SAR, which will be a part of the PRC

after 1 July 1997. We hope however that we will be able to

influence the drafting process through informal contacts. The

crucial aspects for us are that the Basic Law accurately

reflect the agreement (and not be much shorter) an d that in

those areas where i t fills in details, such as government

structure, it does not run against Our own plans for Hong

Kong's constitutional development.

11.

There has been some public controversy over whether the

Basic Law itself should be interpreted by the Chinese National

People's Congress or by the Courts in Hong Kong. The Joint

Declaration is silent on this point. The Chinese response has

While asserting the supremacy of the NPC, which

been confused.

CONFIDENTIAL