TNAG-2711-FCO40-3917-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-and-Par-1993 — Page 58

CHINESE THREATS TO BREAK OFF TALKS IF WE INTRODUCE LEGISLATION?

And we

We would regret that and see no cause for it. I have told

the Chinese Foreign Minister that we want to continue

discussion of the remaining, more difficult, issues.

have proposed a further round of talks later this month for

that purpose.

We would prefer to be able to proceed on the basis of

agreement with China on the basis of the Joint Declaration.

Legislation we are introducing is uncontroversial and

demonstrably urgent.

WHY WAS LEGCO VOTING METHOD THE MAKE-OR-BREAK ISSUE?

We made it clear to the Chinese early on, that an interim

agreement would only be of practical use to us if it

included all the urgent Legco issues as well, including the

LegCo voting method. That would then buy us a little more

time to continue discussing the more complicated issues.

The single-seat, single-vote system for LegCo is widely favoured in Hong Kong: in LegCo itself and in the community.

If we had left it out of an interim package, the package

would probably have been amended by LegCo.

Not the only issue: we had also not reached a satisfactory

understanding on the abolition of appointed membership.

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