TNAG-1900-FCO40-2699-Future-of-Hong-Kong-briefing-1989 — Page 87

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

Lee 8

it is that the majority of people in Hong Kong really want

terms of the timing and unfolding pattern of

democratization.

You have your views, which you stated very

clearly, not only here, but in many other places as well. There are other views about accepting democracy in principal, but questioning the pace at which it is introduced. There

are assessments, which may or may not be right, of what views

are said to be held up in Peking on this matter, and we get

different views on that. Can you just, say, give us your

assessment not merely of your own views which we know, but of why there are these different sets of voices, apparently

conflicting on this issue and how out of this there should

emerge a clearer and firmer view from Hong Kong itself, in

order to guide both those who are making the Basic Law,

namely the PRC and those who are giving an input to it and

- advising on it and seeking to shape it in the interests of

Hong Kong, namely the British Government and indeed the Hong

Kong people themselves.

MR MARTIN LEE: I am obliged for the question. Now first, you

cannot possibly expect 100% consensus on a controversial

issue such as this. People of course will tell different

things. Now I happen to believe that the great vast majority of the pes

of Hong Kong would prefer to have democracy, for the simple

reason that the great great majority of the Chinese people

living in Hong Kong are here because they have run away fro

a communist regime many years ago, or because they have been

Pub

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