TNAG-2714-FCO40-3920-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1993 — Page 14

14-JUL-1993 14:36

TRANSCRIPT

Gallagher

MR ALASTAIR GOODLAD

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0491 579838 P.11

SELECT COMMITTEE

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14 JULY 93

But I re-emphasise again that what we come out of these talks with must be open, they must be fair and they must be acceptable to the people of Hong Kong.

COMMITTEE MEMBER:

You did not address the question I put to you which was how far the extension of democracy in Hong Kong is being determined by what the British government and the Hong Kong government believes desirable, or how far is it being determined by what the Chinese

government will accept.

MR GOODLAD:

It is at the moment being governed by what the British government and the Hong Kong government regard as desirable and I very much hope that the Government of the People's Republic of China will be able to reach an agreement with us on arrangements that we find desirable, that the Hong Kong government find desirable and that the people of Hong Kong find desirable.

MR WARING:

Shouldn't all of this have been thought about before the agreement with China was reached in the first place, bearing in mind that there was no obligation on the part of the United Kingdom to surrender sovereignty to China in 1997 for all of the territory which is now being ceded to China? Is it not also a problem that we have seen in the past that political divisions in Hong Kong amongst the people has not been as it has been in other British

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