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pocket any concessions offered. It was very difficult to envisage any electoral arrangements which would satisfy the Chinese and also be acceptable to Britain and Hong Kong. assumed that it was for this reason that no agreement had been possible with the Chinese side on the 1995 election
arrangements.
3.
The Secretary of State asked what answer should be given to the question whether the Governor's proposals were really open for discussion. The Governor responded that we should go on saying that these were proposals. We were open to the
views of others. But the Chinese had chosen to take the line
that they were under no obligation to put forward their own
proposals and that the Basic Law laid down all the necessary
details.
4. The Secretary of State asked whether alternative
proposals were coming forward via Peking's proxies in Hong
Kong. The Governor confirmed that they were. The Business and Professionals Forum would probably put forward specific proposals following their recent press release. These would be made in Peking. They would probably cover the Election Committee, and possibly suggestions for new functional constituencies. Some LegCo independents might also offer
ideas on the functional constituencies.
5. The Secretary of State then asked about the timetable for
introducing legislation into LegCo. The Governor said that he planned to do this in February, to allow time for drafting.
One of the options would be to separate the main body of the
legislation relating to election arrangements (which would at
other times have been controversial but which the Chinese were
not now focussing on) and to deal separately with the Election
Committee, and the functional constituencies. He had asked
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