TNAG-1469-FCO40-1998-Visits-by-members-of-the-Office-of-the-Unofficial-Members-of-1986 — Page 52

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of Hong Kong people,

and

not

HMG.

Might it be useful for the

Secretary of State to give Chinese leaders further guidance about

the realities of this?

5.

possible

members.

The Secretary of State observed that it would be better if

to secure greater unity of views among Hong Kong BLDC

1

6.

The Governor noted that there simply was no consensus in Hong

Kong. The 57 members of the BLCC almost all had different views.

He thought that most of those who were politically articulate would go along with 25% of legislature members being directly elected. The views of the wider Hong Kong community were difficult to gauge.

7.

Those who

Miss Dunn thought they had no firm views.

expressed views were a vocal minority. Among this

group, the majority seemed to be moving away from the idea of a completely directly elected legislature to 25%. The silent majority did not particularly care. There was a tendency because Chinese antipathy

to direct elections had become known to regard these as a sort of symbol of whether HMG and HKG were still in charge in Hong Kong.

8.

The Secretary of State said he saw this point. Our main

argument with the Chinese was that they must help us to retain confidence in the Basic Law as first drafted, which meant that the

draft must acknowledge the central concerns of Hong Kong people.

But what were these? At present we could only point to the 1987

Review, and insist on the right of HMG and HKG to respond to the views expressed in it. The crucial component would be whether the idea of direct elections, if these were wanted, should be a question

open to the jury. The Chinese must not make difficulties of

principle or scale about this. It was more difficult for us to put this argument to the Chinese if half the jurors were already saying they did not want direct elections at any price.

9.

Miss Dunn noted that it was a question of whether the Hong

Kong people could have confidence that the Chinese would really

listen to them and their views.

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