TNAG-2448-FCO40-3564-Elections-in-Hong-Kong-Basic-Law-1992 — Page 83

EXCHANGES BETWEEN BRITAIN AND CHINA IN 1990 ON CONSTITUTIONAL

DEVELOPMENT

Since there

way

no

youuunt

With

-

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:

China on

the coposition of

-

there was no agreement or understanding between the UK

electoral arrangements for 1995 and China on [the political development of] 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

the five principles agreed between the two sides as a

framework for the Election Committee. Nor did it make

clear the composition of the Election Committee for the

Legislature in 1997.

The Governor therefore had no alternative but to make

proposals of his own consistent with the five principles. for the Election Committee.]

the Election Connitte

exchanges.CON.bern