TNAG-1717-FCO40-2397-Hong-Kong-1987-Review-of-Representative-Government-1988 — Page 160

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KIMAEL

SECRET

Mr McLaren

PS/Lord Glenarthur

Private Secretary

FROM:

CO Hum

Hong Kong Department

DATE:

26 January 1988

CC:

Mr Gillmore

HUCB 011/1

2 7 JAN 1988

HONG KONG: REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTS IN REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT

(68)

KI

A

1.

Ministers will wish to be aware of the outcome of our exchanges with the Chinese about the decisions to be announced in the White

Paper on 10 February.

2.

As agreed, HMA Peking passed the Chinese on 15 January a paper illustrating how we intend to deal with direct elections in the White Paper, including a reference to the Basic Law. The paper was in effect the text of Chapter III (Direct Elections to the Legislative Council) and Chapter VIII (The Way Forward) of the White

Paper.

3. On 22 January Ke Zaishuo conveyed the Chinese response to HMA He said that Peking. He expressed their gratitude for the paper. it gave rise to no problems of substance: the Chinese side therefore had no objection to it. But he had raised two technical points:

(a)

The final sentence in paragraph 6 of the paper (sidelined) referred to "a slight preference for having having direct elections in addition to, rather than instead of, the present system of indirect elections by an electoral college". The Chinese saw some inconsistency between this and the decision in paragraph 12 that the 10 directly elected seats should in 1991 take the place of the 10 seats currently filled by indirect elections

from the District Boards;

SECRET