PART IV: CONCLUSION AND THE WAY FORWARD
77. As the preceding Section makes clear, many of the
individual issues covered in the talks were, in themselves,
quite technical.
But the fundamental difference between the two
sides was simple. The proposals put forward by the British and Hong Kong Governments were, in essence, designed to produce a
Legislative Council and District Organisations that would truly
represent the interests of Hong Kong and its community, thereby
embodying the concept "Hong Kong run by Hong Kong people". The Chinese side wanted far more restrictive electoral arrangements, with far fewer voters. The smallest of their proposed new
functional constituencies would have had an electorate of under
100. Such arrangements would be vulnerable to corruption and
manipulation, and would not, in the view of Her Majesty's
Government and the Hong Kong Government, guarantee elected
institutions likely to reflect in undistorted form the interests
of the people they represent.
78. Over the past year, some observers have argued that an
agreement should be reached at any cost, on the grounds that the consequences of failure to reach agreement would be too serious. As this White Paper explains, Her Majesty's Government and the
Hong Kong Government have done everything possible to try to
secure an acceptable agreement. But they do not consider that a flawed agreement on the lines demanded by the Chinese side is
better than none. The consequences for Hong Kong of the electoral arrangements proposed by the Chinese side would
themselves be very serious.
79. The central objective of the Joint Declaration is to
preserve Hong Kong's stability and prosperity, and the open society on which these are based. At the heart of this, and of Hong Kong's success over the years, is the rule of law, and equally important the confidence, in Hong Kong itself and
de
statement 26.8/BRIEFS/NJH
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