TNAG-2496-FCO40-3632-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-Macao-(Macau)-1992 — Page 124

CODE RAD

Reference.

11.

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Dr Harkin HKD

HKC 029131

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MACAO BASIC LAW (DRAFT)

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Car Graham, BTC. MK A Coater, Peking Vonic (fax)) Mr Ehrman, 4-K-

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Heads of Section Mr Paul. 1. The Chinese have recently released a revised version of the Macao Basic Law, a translation of which is published in SWB 1335 26/12 C2/1-13. From 16 March, when the text was published, until the end of July 1992 there will be a further consultation process, at the end of which the Basic Law Drafting Committee will rework the draft for presentation to a full plenum of the BDLC in January 1993 and eventual submission to the NPC later that year. I have compared the text with that of the original draft, made public in July last year.

There are a number of minor drafting changes, but also some significant ones, especially some relating to the future political structure of Macao where the new version appears to rather less liberal than its predecessor. The translation given in SWB FE 1335 is not wholly reliable. I have asked for it to be checked in a number of places and it would appear that the translators have missed occasional phrases and sentences. thus difficult with the material to hand to offer firm

conclusions.

2.

It is

The principal omission (which the originators say was really omitted) is the reference in Article 69 to the provision, relating to the composition of the Legislative Council, that "permanent residents of the Region who are not of Chinese nationality may also be elected members of the Legislative Council, provided that the proportion of such members does not exceed 20 per cent of the total Council membership". Without checking against a Chinese text, which is not available here yet, I cannot say for certain that this is omitted. A similar concession will apply to Hong Kong (BL 67). If it has been dropped from the Macao Basic Law that would make Macao's nationality restrictions with regard to the Legislative Council considerably stricter than those of Hong Kong. In some other respects, they are more relaxed. In Macao neither the Chief Executive nor the principal officials will be required not to have right of abode in a foreign country (as will be the case in Hong Kong). The other Article in which the Chinese have strengthened their language is the one relating to subversion etc (Article 23) where more Chinese sounding language has been added.

4. Most of the other changes appear to be minor. There are a number of apparent concessions to the Portuguese: specifying Portuguese as an official language (Article 9), and allowing schools run by religious organisations to offer religious education (Article 127). A specific reference to the protection of the rights of women is added in Article 38.

5.

The Appendix on the National Laws to be applied to Macao contains two, the Regulations on Consular Privileges and Immunities and the Law on the Territorial Sea, which are not in the Hong Kong Basic Law. The latter at least was not in existence at the time of the promulgation of the Hong Kong BL. This does raise the question of how the Chinese are going to accommodate these, and

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