TNAG-2445-FCO40-3560-Internal-political-situation-in-Hong-Kong-1992 — Page 47

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Alan Paul has kindly sent me copies of his letters to you of 20 and 28 January about political developments in Hong Kong.

Under the agreed ground rules (my letter of 26 February 1990 to Alan Paul - then in London) these ietters should be seen as the personal views of UKRep JLG; no more and no less. I do not undertake to comment on them. Absence of comment should be seen as neither approval nor disapproval.

I do not propose to give any detailed comments on the latest two letters. They are a good, critical, account of what is going on in LegCo. Inevitably they tend to chart the rocks more than the continuing flow of the river.

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There are however two glosses worth adding. first relates to all the argument about Standing Committees. The letters under-estimate both the China factor and the role behind the scenes of the Hong Kong Government. In terms of the operational efficiency of LegCo, the Edward Chen "model" was objectively the best. It, or something like it, would almost certainly have been agreed had it not been for the fuss made by China. The result would have been a perfectly workable system and no more shift of power from ExCo to LegCo than is anyway inherent in the political changes created by introducing a majority of elected seats to LegCo.

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