TNAG-1438-FCO40-1922-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 154

Date

Statements by Chinese

Officials

2.1.86 (cont'd)

5.1.86

Constitutional Reforms (48)

Statements by Government News Comments/Editorials

Officials

Statements/Comments

by others

Non-communist Papers

(Ming Pao): Though well-intentioned, the advocates of represen- tative government had been obsessed with the merits of various systems and had overlook the cost. HK would have to pay for democracy.

(Wong Yiu-chung, lecturer of Shu Yan College, wrote in HK Economic Journal): HK needed democratic system to implement the

one country, two systems" concept.

(Oriental Daily News reported) (Source close to the Government): The views expressed by the BLCC on political reforms would be used as an important reference for the 1987 review.

(HK Daily News reported) (HK correspondent of Yomiuri Shimbun Haruo Tobari): The idea of establishing an organisation along the lines of Japan Federation of Economic Organisation, as being studied by the Progressive HK Society, was worth a try. The conditions were not yet ripe for forming

political parties but the

Japanese model could to some extent help secure democracy and freedom after 1997.