TNAG-2331-FCO40-3390-Reciprocal-judicial-assistance-between-Hong-Kong-and-China-c-1991 — Page 17

CONFIDENTIAL

core of the leadership of the Chinese people's socialist construction. This is clearly provided in the Constitution." Constitution also provides that the people's courts shall exercise independent judicial authority according to the law. The exercise of independent judicial authority by the people's courts is carried out under the leadership of the Communist Party. The leadership of the courts by the party is the basic guarantee that the people's courts will complete their judicial responsibilities. People's courts at every level must consciously accept the Party's leadership

The independent exercise of judicial authority by the people's courts is not the same as the 'independence of the judiciary' in capitalist countries. During last year's political turmoil some people raised the banner of 'independence of the judiciary'. In fact, this was preaching the capitalist 'division of powers' and opposing the leadership of the Communist Party over

judicial work, which must be resisted and

refuted.

Presumably in keeping with this distinctive spirit of "judicial independence", the General Secretary of the Communist Party, Jiang Zemin, recently advised us that in the (then) forthcoming trials of some of those involved in the Chinese Democracy Movement of early summer 1989, the dissidents would be treated leniently by the court. The Beijing Intermediate People's Court duly handed down sentences officially described as 'lenient'.

In other words, we must see the current PRC leadership as one which continues to regard the law as a tool of party policy. By making an early agreement with the PRC authorities, we may saddle ourselves with a relatively unfavourable arrangement that we may come to regret when serious political reform does come about in China. It is presumably for this reason that the U.K. has itself held back on negotiations in this area with the PRC. Certainly, when I saw (in the company of John Griffths and Tim Freshwater) Richard White at the Lord

CONFIDENTIAL