population; lowering the voting age to 18; and ensuring
that the members of the Election Committee, which will
itself elect 10 members of LegCo, should themselves be
elected. This did not challenge the Chinese insistence
that the Basic Law cannot be changed before 1997 elections
or the directly elected seats increased beyond the 20 set
out in the Basic Law. The Chinese had also objected
strongly to speculation that Mr Martin Lee might be
appointed to the Executive Council (ExCo). This, again,
did not happen.
Our strong support for the Governor's proposals has
not changed. The Chinese criticism has had an unsettling
effect in some quarters. But among the population as a
whole the proposals continue to attract strong support
a ratio of about 2:1 according to the polls.
by
There has been some discussion about whether the
Governor's proposals are compatible with the Basic Law and
the Joint Declaration. To set the record straight I am
enclosing a brief summary of how the Governor's proposals
fit with the relevant sections of both these documents.
The exchange of letters I had with the Chinese Foreign
Minister in 1990 did not result in an understanding between
us on the 1995 elections. We placed the text of these and
a commentary in the Library of the House when they were
published last autumn.
We and the Governor have made it clear that his
proposals were not set in concrete and that we were open to
alternative ideas from the Chinese side as well as from
people in Hong Kong. The Governor himself made this clear when he announced his proposals. A range of alternative
ideas has been put forward in Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong
Government have produced a compendium of these for the
benefit of members of the LegCo. We have given a copy to the Chinese. A copy is in the Library of the House.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.