TNAG-1443-FCO40-1927-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 78

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D.

Method of Selection

9. The present Chinese position is that the first Chief Executive

should be chosen before 1997 by consultation, whatever the method to

be used subsequently. The Chinese do not yet seem to have

how the consultation exercise

considered who should be consulted

should be mounted.

10. At present the indications are that the Chinese would not agree

to the selection of the first Chief Executive by election. (A major

factor in their thinking must be that in practice an election would

have to be conducted in Hong Kong while the territory was still

under British administration.) There would however be great advantage, in terms of confidence in Hong Kong, if the main features

of the method of selection to be used after 1997 could be tested out

in advance, for the selection of the first Chief Executive. This

would assist him by ensuring that he entered office with a demonstrable degree of support from the people of Hong Kong. We should put these arguments to the Chinese in due course.

E. Candidates

11. It is too early to consider what type of individual might be

best suited to be the

to be the first Chief

first Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR.

Broadly speaking the choice is between a former official drawn from

the Hong Kong Government service, and a non-official with a background in the Executive Council and/or the Legislative Council.

The former would bring more direct experience of practical

administration, the latter a higher political

political profile. If we

envisaged two terms of office for a Deputy Governor before 1997, the

two incumbents need not be drawn from the same background. We have

no clear picture of thinking in Peking on this point, beyond one or

two indications (not necessarily reliable ones) that the Chinese may

see some attractions in a Chief Executive selected from among senior

Government officials.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

October 1986

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