TNAG-2487-FCO40-3618-Future-relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-China-1992 — Page 78

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The absence of any kind of formal representation by the

people of Hong Kong in the negotiations over the arrangements for

the future may be said to be not only flawed from the moral point

of view, but from the practical standpoint as well. Since the

Joint declaration of 1984 the people of Hong Kong have developed

a number of political voices and have begun to establish the

beginnings of a political system as part of getting prepared for

exercising autonomy under Chinese sovereignty. As a new breed of

politicians have come to the fore they have had to learn afresh

about building democratic parties that can have coherent

programmes and provide organisational frameworks that can link

voters and grass roots associations with representatives in the

Legislative Council. Like politicians elsewhere they are vitally

interested in the character of the electoral system to be adopted

and the various details of the constitutional and legal niceties

affecting the nascent political system. Their absence from the

negotiations may be said to add further problems to the

negotiations themselves.

Both the British and the Chinese claim to have special

responsibilities and duties towards the Chinese residents of Hong

Kong. In the course of the negotiations that led up to the Joint

Declaration the Chinese rejected British attempts to include Hong

Kong views. Dismissing the so-called "three legged stool" theory

as an attempt by the British to "play the public opinion card",

the Chinese argued that they knew the views of their compatriots

as these were collected through The New China News Agency office

students, workers, newspaper editors, businessmen and

from,