TNAG-1472-FCO40-2003-Ministerial-visits-from-the-UK-to-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 219

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in to the Chinese point of view. By drawing an analogy with railway lines meeting over some crossing point, he further explained that 'convergence' implied two or more people going at the same speed, arriving at the same place at the same time.

He did

not go into the modalities of future political systems in the Basic Law or in the 1987 review in his discussions with Chinese officials.

6.

In reply to Mr. J.J. Swaine's request for assurance that there would be no impediment to preparations in Hong Kong towards having a review in 1987, Mr. Renton assured the meeting that there would be no impediment to the 1987 review to which HMG was firmly committed.

7.

Mr. Martin Lee said the term convergence' was first used by Mr. XU Jia-tun shortly before the second JLG meeting in late November 1985 and then by Mr. JI Peng-fei in a pro-Peking Magazine. It was subsequently used by the CS and Mr. Renton. He said that if the people of Hong Kong said in the 1987 review that they wanted to have a small element of elected seats in 1988 and the PRCG said no, then there would be no convergence. How to go from there?

8.

Mr. Renton stressed that there was no question of lame duck Government. It was in fact Sir Richard Evans, HMA Peking, who first suggested use of the term 'convergence'. He was not prepared to give a hypothetical answer to the hypothetical situation put forward by Mr. Lee. He was confident that the 1987 review would address the question of elections to LegCo and the views of Hong Kong people would be sought.

9.

Mr. Martin Lee said that the question he put forward was not a hypothetical one. The report of the Assessment Office on the acceptability of the draft agreement and the 1984 White Paper clearly indicated that the proposition of the legislature of the Hong Kong SAR Government being constituted by elections was hailed by Hong Kong people. 'Convergence' suggested that the PRCG would get what they wanted. Mr. Renton stressed that one should not read too much into the term 'convergence'. Nothing sinister was intended. He would be quite happy to employ another term if a better term could be suggested. He repeated his comments made during his October press conference in Hong Kong that he was confident that in the run-up to the 1987 review all sorts of opinions would be coming forward through the usual channels.

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