CONFIDENTIAL
21 JAN 1958
PS/Lor
Mr Mclaren
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21 January 1988
PS
PS/Mr Eggar PS/PUS
Mr Gillmore Mr Hum, HKD Mr Houston
PRU
HONG KONG DEBATE: CHINESE GOVERNMENT'S POSITION ON DIRECT ELECTIONS
1.
A number of opposition speakers (and some on the government benches) in yesterday's Hong Kong debate appeared to be under
a misapprehension about the Chinese Government's position on direct elections in Hong Kong. Mr Kaufman in particular referred several times to the "briefing" which Labour members had received
in from a "brilliant member of the Chinese Embassy and said, arguing for direct elections this year, that he could have been influenced in favour of delay to 1991 if it had not been for the statement made by the Chinese Embassy.
2.
The briefing referred to by Mr Kaufman was given by Mrs Zhang Youyun (Counsellor and Member of the Joint Liaison Group) on the afternoon of 18 January. She was standing in for her Ambassador who was ill. She and the Ambassador had earlier briefed Mr George Foulkes before his recent visit to Hong Kong.
3.
At the Chinese Ambassador's dinner for Lord Glenarthur
was still ill and yesterday evening (the Ambassador himself
room
did not attend), Mrs Zhang Youyun was indignant at the way she had been "misquoted and quoted out of context" by Labour represent- atives, including Mr Kaufman. She said that she had set out the Chinese Government's position in a way which left no for misunderstanding. She had explained that the Chinese Government were not opposed to direct elections in principle,
would be and if provision was made for them in the Basic Law, prepared to see them introduced before 1997. early both because of the sharp division in Hong Kong on the question of timing and because the Basic Law would not by then have been finalised. It would cause instability in Hong Kong if direct elections were introduced this year.
But 1988 was too
4.
Mrs Zhang said that she had spoken after the debate to three Labour members, Messrs Foulkes, Bray and Faulds. They had agreed that Mrs Zhang had explained the Chinese position clearly at her meeting with Labour MPs and that this had not come across in Mr Kaufman's speech. Dr Bray apparently said he had done what he could to correct the misunderstanding in his own speech (which I did not hear). Mr Foulkes promised to do what he could to "set the record straight" (Mrs Zhang was not clear what he had in mind). Mrs Zhang said she would
consider what, if any, further action was needed to explain the Chinese Government's position to the Labour Party.
now
CONFIDENTIAL
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