TNAG-1398-FCO40-1870-Future-of-Hong-Kong-Basic-Law-1985 — Page 121

CONFIDENTIAL

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

R P Margolis Esq

DPA

HONG KONG

Telephone 01- 273 3342

ним сюра..

040/24

1 1 HOV 1955

INL

i

Your reference

h

Our reference

Date 8 November 1985

135)

Jew Richard,

HONG KONG/PRC: BASIC LAW AND "DEMOCRATIC CONSULTATION"

1. In my letter of 18 September on the Chinese thinking on the Basic Law, I said I would return to the question of "democratic consultation". This term, which has recently been used frequently by Chinese officials and others in Hong Kong in the context of the Basic Law, does not necessarily carry the somewhat sinister overtones implied in Hong Kong tel no 175 of 29 August.

NIR

2. We have not done an exhaustive check of our records, but it would seem that the term democratic consultation has generally over the last ten years been used in two ways in the PRC. One is to describe a wide range of contacts/discussions on any subject. The chairman of the CPPCC encouraged this in 1978, and we have found some references, dating from 1982, to democratic consultations as a means of canvasing views on economic reform. Thus in March 1982, the Hunan provincial CCP Committee convened a "democratic consultation meeting in Hunan Guest House to solicit opinions on cracking down on economic crime".

3.

The other use of "democratic consultation" has been in the context of the selection of candidates for formal submission to the electorate in state and other elections. The problem seems to have been that while the various Chinese state and party constitutions drawn up since 1949 provide for the election of representatives at various levels, and such elections have in theory been conducted according to universal suffrage, there has been no machinery for the selection of candidates. In practice these have been nominated by the Communist Party but there have been signs from time to time that this in itself is not seen as a very democratic process and one which is liable to criticism both inside and outside the country. Given the disputes within the Communist Party itself, the selection of candidates by the Party has also not been a guarantee that the "right" person has been selected. This is of course a problem not confined to the Chinese Communist Party. It was one faced both by Dr Sun Yat-sn and by Chiang Kai-shek. Both are on record as believing that Western style democracy was not truly "democratic".

/4.

CONFIDENTIAL