for in the Joint Declaration, which states specifically that the Legislative Council in the Hong Kong SAR will be constituted by elections. Moreover, the Basic Law provides specifically that 50% of the Legislative Council will be directly elected in 2003 and allows for the possibility that the whole Council will be directly elected in 2007. My proposals do not change the rate of progress towards this accepted goal.
I hope that what I have said in this letter will help to explain why I have set out on my present course, and why I still consider it to be the right way forward for Hong Kong. I am most grateful to you for taking the trouble to write to me at such length, and for your care to avoid any public expression of your views. They would, as you say, receive considerable publicity in Hong Kong, in a way that would not be helpful to us.
Like you, I am copying this letter to Douglas
Hurd.
Governor
The Rt Hon Lord Fanshawe of Richmond, KCMG House of Lords
London
cc: The Rt Hon Doublas Hurd, CBE MP
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
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