TNAG-2448-FCO40-3564-Elections-in-Hong-Kong-Basic-Law-1992 — Page 80

EXCHANGES BETWEEN BRITAIN AND CHINA IN 1990 ON CONSTITUTIONAL

DEVELOPMENT

Chinese officials have claimed that exchanges between

Britain and China in early 1990 added up to an understanding about political development in Hong Kong.

To set the record straight, we have decided to release the

texts of the relevant messages. The Chinese side have been

informed.

-

These documents show that:

there was no agreement or understanding between the UK

and China on the electoral arrangements for 1995 in

Hong Kong;

we made clear repeatedly our dissatisfaction at the

Chinese proposals for the number of directly-elected

seats in the Legislative Council. We made plain that

we intended to continue to press for a faster rate of

increase in the number of these seats;

at the end of these exchanges, the question of electoral arrangements in Hong Kong up to 1997 remained open;

this was the broader context for the discussion of the

composition of the Election Committee which, under the Basic Law, would elect 10 members of the Legislative

Council. The final version of the Basic Law was not

satisfactory on this point because it did not spell out

as we had asked the five principles agreed between the two sides as a framework for an Election Committee

system. Nor did it make clear the composition of the

Election Committee for the Legislature in 1997. What it

exchanges.CON.bern