receive him: on 20 October 1992. He explained his proposals and again emphasised the wish of Her Majesty's Government and Hong Kong Government to discuss them with the Chinese side. But Chinese leaders refused any such discussion. They later demanded in public that the Governor should withdraw his proposals before any discussion of electoral arrangements could take place.
In the following two months, the PRC-controlled press in Hong Kong mounted increasingly strident attacks on the Governor and on his proposals, without offering any alternative ideas. Statements from the Chinese side cast doubt on the continuing validity after 1997 of Government contracts and franchises and suggested that China might begin to prepare alternative arrangements for the legislature in 1997. This public campaign caused anxiety in the community in Hong Kong. The stock market fell temporarily, although Hong Kong's economic fundamentals remained strong.
17. At a press conference immediately after the Governor's visit to Peking, a senior Chinese official claimed that the Governor's proposals violated agreements and understandings reached in exchanges of correspondence in early 1990 between the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary and his Chinese counterpart. To set the record straight, Her Majesty's Government published the seven documents concerned. These showed that agreement had been reached that there should be eighteen directly-elected seats in the Legislative Council in 1991, but that no agreement was reached on electoral arrangements for 1995. These were left open for future discussion.
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statememt26.8/BRIEFS/NJH
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