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acceptable to ourselves or to the people of Hong Kong.
17.
The powers delegated or devolved to the Chief Executive
(Designate) could be resumed if the need arose, either because of
his inadequacy or because of external factors (although we should
not underestimate the political difficulty of doing so). The aim
would however be to devolve to him by 1997 all the powers to be
exercised by the Chief Executive after 1997, So as to lessen the
likelihood that the Chinese might be tempted, even against the
provisions of the Joint Declaration, to retain such powers for themselves after the change of sovereignty.
Consequential Issues
18. A number of consequential issues are examined in the Annex to
this paper.
Ministers will wish to note the implications of what is
proposed: but these do not require Ministerial decision at this
stage. Such decisions could only be taken once
once the general concept
has been
been explained to the Chinese and they have been drawn into
discussion of their own intentions for the period immediately after
1997.
19.
Our objectives in these areas might be the following:
(i) the post of Deputy Governor might be created in 1992. A
second term of office would span the change of sovereignty in
1997 (Annex paras 1-2):
(ii) an individual acceptable to ourselves and the Chinese,
and if possible selected by the same process as would be used
after 1997, would occupy the post of Deputy Governor, perhaps
in 1995, and become Chief Executive on 1 July 1997 (Annex
para 3):
(iii) powers
would
be progressively devolved to the
incumbents of the post, although ultimate authority would
remain with HMG in accordance with the provisions of the
Joint Declaration (Annex paras 4-6):
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