TNAG-2169-FCO40-3106-House-of-Commons-Foreign-Affairs-Committee-inquiry-into-Hong-1990 — Page 42

that it would have made them more amenable to take what would have had to

be a voluntary act if we had done that.

Chairman: I do not want to come between lawyer and lawyer, but I

would like to go back to Mr Shore.

Mr Shore

40.

It is another aspect of democracy. Of course, the post of

The Basic Law is not

chief executive is one of extreme importance.

explicit about how the first chief executive is to be elected or selected.

We note from the White Paper that the Government says that they are going

to discuss this with the Chinese Government. What in those discussions

will the Government seek to achieve?

(Mr_Maude) I think it is important that the first chief executive

should be representative broadly and should command confidence in the

territory, in the Special Administrative Region. It is, I think, a good

thing that Article 45 of the Basic Law states that the ultimate aim is the

selection of the chief executive by universal suffrage. I think that is a

very welcome development. But in the meantime the decision of the National

People's Congress prescribes the way in which the first chief executive is

to be selected. Perhaps Mr McLaren could elaborate on the detail of that.

(Mr McLaren) The decision of the National People's Congress on 4th

April prescribes that there should be a selection committee composed of 400

members and it states the proportions in which those members are to be

distributed, and it then says that the selection committee is to recommend

the candidate for first chief executive through local consultations or

through nomination and election after consultation, and report the

recommended candidate to the Central People's Government for appointment.

That is the procedure that is laid down.

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