TNAG-2329-FCO40-3373-Hong-Kong-contacts-with-academics-and-writers-1991 — Page 4

S.5.

and

"Hong Kong's Lifestyle and Britain"

"The Vietnamese Asylum-seekers' Lifestyle in Hong Kong"

I would like OMELCO, a British parliamentary team, and others to be involved in S.3(b) along with others. Now that the PRC has legislated the Hong Kong Legislative Council into existence as a concept in PRC law, the Central People's Government may one day recognise OMELCO's existence in practice. This would enable OMELCO to play a role in 4(a) above. It would be odd if this were not to happen in time. The PRC has said it supports the idea of the 1991 elections. I hope that at that point at least it will not deny the status of Legislative Councillors. And there is one other point: A very large proportion of Hong Kong people are said to be apolitical and uninterested in public affairs. In that context, representatives are needed very much in any general debate; but so are the electorate themselves, and the unregistered voter too. How does one get them involved?

The third part of the paper is called Patriotism, Predictability and the First Autonomous SAR. This part of the paper is based on two practical questions which have taken root in my mind since I have been in Hong Kong. First, what is the post-1997 "high degree of autonomy" intended to achieve? And, secondly, what ways can be found consistently with the terms of the Joint Declaration to bolster the high degree of autonomy which Hong Kong has been promised for 1997 and beyond? I approach these issues in three sections.

A..

What is the Purpose of Autonomy?

B.

C.

(paragraph 3.2)

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Chinese Patriotism and "One Country, Two Systems (paragraph 3.10)

Promoting Predictability in the Relationship between the CPG and the SAR. (paragraph 3.23)

My major concern is rooted in a belief that unless there is autonomy at the institutional and personal level in the HKSAR, the territorial autonomy itself could be more apparent than real. Thus, I believe that autonomy has to run at two separate levels if it is to have any practical meaning for Hong Kong residents. First, the CPG has promised that the SAR will have a "high degree" of it, and that is what I call the macro level; secondly, a noticeable aspect of the territory's lifestyle has been that Hong Kong society operates in large measure "autonomously" from government. This, I call the micro. The labels are not particularly apt, but they'll have to do. The nexus between the two levels of autonomy provides the key to maintaining "present systems, human rights and lifestyle", to quote Sir Geoffrey Howe when he was British Foreign Secretary (see paragraph 2.1). This leads me