TNAG-1397-FCO40-1869-Future-of-Hong-Kong-Basic-Law-1985 — Page 86

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

98

Translation N

HKK

040/21

A SEPA

اشتند

drl.

(Extract from the Nineties Issue No. 188 Sept. 1985)

Column: Hong Kong Bend (The 1997 File)

Painful first steps for the Basic Law

1451/E/85

By Ho Lap

Pu

Ван Сио

12. 234

The question of the Basic Law has stirred up quite a controversy in town and opinions vary as to how the consultative committee should be

But this is only the beginning. Henceforth, Sino-Hongkong dealings

set up.

on the question of the Basic Law will mainly hinge on whether Hong Kong

people put up a fight or give way on some 'bottom lines'

With the closing of the Basic Law Drafting Committee's first

meeting in Beijing and preparations for the setting up of the Basic Law

Consultative Committee in Hong Kong, the 'fighting ring' of the Basic Law

has been shifted from Beijing to Hong Kong.

The question of a Basic Law consultative body had already become

a focus of discussion at the Drafting Committee's meetings in Beijing.

The final conclusion arrived at was that the Hongkong members of the Basic

Law Drafting Committee would be entrusted to prepare for the setting up

of the Basic Law Consultative Committee, with the assistance of the Hong

Kong Branch of the New China News Agency. In view of the fact that the Consultative Committee, which should, in principle, be a body made up of

members of the public, will be set up by the Drafting Committee - an

officially appointed body and Beijing's official agent in Hong Kong,

battle smoke has been seen to rise incessantly from the 'fighting ring'.

The 'visit' and 'naming' of members

Some community groups in Hong Kong were soon worried about how

the local members of the Drafting Committee would go about setting up the

Consultative Committee. First of all, it is obvious that since Hong Kong

is a capitalist city where the capitalist system will remain unchanged

for 50 years after 1997, Beijing's appointment of Hong Kong members to

the Drafting Committee had taken into account the upper classes of the

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