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must take full account of what is in Hong Kong's long term interest. This means doing what we can in the years before 1997 to entrench a democratic system in Hong Kong which meets the aspirations of the community and which
will continue after 1997. Hence the great importance of the Basic Law, which will be finalised in the next three
months. Once the Basic Law has been enacted by the
National People's Congress it will be hard to alter.
3.
The relevant special groups of the Basic Law Drafting Committee (BLDC) met in December and produced a
revised draft. The latest draft of the political section is an improvement in that it provides for 18, rather than
15, directly elected seats in 1997. But it is also a
step backwards in that further development in the 10
years after 1997 has now been ruled out. (A chart comparing the various proposals is annexed.) The special groups meet again on 17 January to consider the draft, which will be put to a plenary meeting of the BLDC in February and then to the National People's Congress in
late March.
4.
The Governor's specific objectives for his visit to Peking should be:
to secure provision for a larger number of directly
elected seats in 1997 than the 18 out of 60 now
envisaged;
to persuade the Chinese to make provision for further development after 1997 (the present proposal
is that there should be no changes for 10 years after 1997);
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