TNAG-2710-FCO40-3916-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-and-Par-1993 — Page 111

June 1993

Roderic Lyne Esq CMG

Private Secretary

10 Downing Street

London SW1

CONFIDENTIAL

HONG KONG

The Fourth Round of talks about Hong Kong's electoral

arrangements (28-29 May) made little progress.

We had secured Chinese agreement in the Third Round to leave aside debate about principles, and begin to discuss substance. But they were only willing to take issues one by one, and therefore gave us some general

views in the Fourth Round about the District Board and

Municipal Council elections. We responded by explaining the Governor's detailed proposals for these elections (which are not controversial in Hong Kong). The Chinese side said that they would not discuss any part of the Governor's proposals and pressed us to come up with

alternatives.

We declined to play that game, and emphasised that it

would only be possible to make progress when the Chinese

gave us their views on the full range of issues,

including those we had raised.

Lyne2.6/PSN010

CONFIDENTIAL