TNAG-2716-FCO40-3922-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1993 — Page 109

EXCHANGES BETWEEN BRITAIN AND CHINA IN 1990 ON CONSTITUTIONAL

DEVELOPMENT

Chinese officials have claimed that exchanges between Britain and China in early 1990 added up to an understanding about political development in Hong Kong.

To set the record straight, we have decided to release the texts of the relevant messages. The Chinese side have been

informed. These documents show that:

there was no agreement or understanding between the UK and China on the electoral arrangements for 1995 in Hong Kong;

we made clear repeatedly our dissatisfaction at the Chinese proposals for the number of directly-elected seats in the Legislative Council. We made plain that we intended to continue to press for a

press for a faster rate of increase in the number of these seats;

at the end of these exchanges, the question of electoral arrangements in Hong Kong up to 1997 remained open;

this was the broader context for the discussion of the composition of the Election Committee which, under the Basic Law, would elect 10 members of the Legislative Council. The final version of the Basic Law was not satisfactory on this point because it did not spell out as we had asked the five principles agreed between the two sides as a framework for an Election Committee system. Nor did it make clear the composition of the Election Committee for the Legislature in 1997.

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