TNAG-2608-FCO40-3799-International-support-from-the-USA-regarding-the-future-of-H-1992 — Page 17

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MR. SOLOMON: I didn't hear that view expressed.

SEN. MCCONNELL:

Sensitivity then might mean that they prefer that it does happen, carefully crafted, or they don't care?

MR. SOLOMON: I think at this stage of the game there is so much delicacy attached to their evolving relationship with Beijing on this issue, that I think they don't want to have too many kibbitzers from the sides, if you like, I mean that's perhaps my way of putting it in the vernacular. But again, I did not sit down and go through the various sections of your legislation and ask for their reactions to it. I just didn't cover it that way.

SEN. MCCONNELL: Did you happen to meet with any of the elected members of Legco?

MR. SOLOMON: Yes, I did.

SEN. MCCONNELL: How did they feel about it?

MR. SOLOMON:

——

Actually I had a session one evening with three of the elected members and I in that discussion we didn't go off into it.

were talking about really the political environment and the elections, how the democratization process might evolve.

SEN. MCCONNELL: So there was no discussion of this particular measure with the elected members of Legco?

MR. SOLOMON: Not with those three individuals, that is correct.

SEN. MCCONNELL: With anybody else in Legco?

MR. SOLOMON: Those were the only three I met on this occasion.

SEN.

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MCCONNELL: Have you or anyone else in the administration, to your knowledge, discussed this issue this bill with anybody in the PRC, any PRC officials?

MR. SOLOMON: A PRC official has raised it at a high level with our government.

SEN. MCCONNELL:

They're enthusiastically for it, right? (Laughter)

MR. SOLOMON: I think they'd put it rather differently.

SEN. MCCONNELL: How did they put it?

MR. SOLOMON: As I have indicated, they see this as a bilateral issue between them and the British and feel that we should not interject ourselves into the middle of this transitional situation. And in responses it was explained to them that given the objectives in the joint declaration and in the basic law to have a high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong, that this does require certain legal adjustment on our part to meet those very objectives. And so in that way we indicated our interest in making sure that our legal