TNAG-2553-FCO40-3728-Hong-Kong-Bill-of-Rights-review-of-legislation-1992 — Page 133

CONFIDENTIAL

Redacted under FOI exemption sections 27 (1)(a), (c), (d);

2

Setting

aside

the

possible different interpretations Over the nature of the commitment, there remains the question whether we should inform the Chinese of the proposed amendments and be prepared to discuss. As usual, we are faced with Hobson's choice. If we tell the Chinese, they may demand that we withhold action. If we don't tell the Chinese, they will denounce us and may

threaten to overturn the amendments in 1997.

I think you will agree that there is no case for consulting the Chinese on our proposed amendments.

ΤΟ consult them Cormally would force them to demand по unilateral action. Nevertheless, in order to avoid the Chinese uccusing us of taking them by surprise, we think it would be prudent to inform them about our proposed hopefully in a less than formal manner, e.g. at a luncheon between the two Senior Representatives. We are mindful that this could. set an undesirable precedent for informing them of other legislative amendments necessitated Court decisions which may have to be made urgently in

amendments,

by

some cases.

On timing,

we

intend to submit proposals by the Commissioner, Independent Commission Against Corruption to amend the ICAC Ordinance and the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO) to Exco around mid-January with a view to introducing it into LegCo in February. This is likely to be followed by amendments to the Crimes Ordinance. No dates have been fixed for introducing amendments to the Societies Ordinance, Police Force Ordinance and Immigration Ordinance.

It would be appropriate to inform the Chinese about the amendments after they were approved by ExCo but shortly before they were published in the gazette. ΤΟ avoid engaging in any substantive discussion with them, we would have to explain that we could not afford delay in amending The frozen ordinances as we did not expect that LegCo would approve any extension of the freeze period. We could point to the serious consequences of important provisions of these ordinances being struck down by the courts (we would need to develop this line).

CONFIDENTIAL