CONFIDENTIA
Summary Record of dinner conversation between Chief
Secretary and Lu Ping, 16 January 1986
CS said this
Lu Ping asked for our definition of "accountable".
was not a matter of a dictionary definition. Lu Ping should look
at the system as it existed in Hong Kong. There was a tripartite
structure, and a sound one. The public were used to it.
Accountability was another way of expressing the system of
checks and balances operating between its elements. How exactly
one filled these various boxes was a matter for discussion.
system was evolving. It had always evolved to meet changing needs.
What we were talking about were the needs of Hong Kong. One
would get different definitions of "accuntable" in different
countries e.g. the UK, the US and France. The important thing for
Lu Ping was to see how things worked in Hong Kong.
2.
The
Lu Ping said there were various views on the Chinese side.
Some people asserted that accountability (and this was the word he
himself used rather than the Chinese
負責) meant that
Legco would rule the Executive (at no stage did Lu distance
himself from the use of the existing terminology; nor did he make
the point that China would be bound to change the labels). In his
own book however Government in Hong Kong must be strong and decisive.
Mr. Boyd said there was a third element:
Government must also be
responsive to people's wishes; and they needed to know that they
had a stake in the development of the political system. What
had Lu Ping's own chief impression been so far?
3.
—
he then corrected
Lu Ping said that the working people
himself to say "the masses"- only wanted a good wage, security
CONFIDENTIAL
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