TNAG-2716-FCO40-3922-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1993 — Page 111

HONG KONG: COMMENTARY ON SINO-BRITISH EXCHANGES IN 1990

In recent days, Chinese officials have referred to

diplomatic exchanges between British and Chinese Ministers in early 1990.

2.

Diplomatic exchanges between governments are normally confidential. But, in the interests of openness and at the suggestion of the Chinese side, the Secretary of State has decided that these messages should be made public. They make plain the true nature of the discussions between the two sides in 1990, and in particular that there are no understandings which the British side have breached. The Executive Council

were kept fully briefed at the time and saw the text of all the correspondence between the two Foreign Ministers.

3. The messages, the texts of which are attached, are:

First, a message from Mr Douglas Hurd to Mr Qian Qichen of 18 January 1990. Mr Hurd expressed the view that 20 directly elected seats in 1997 would not be sufficient to command

support in Hong Kong. He also stated that if arrangements for constituting the Election Committee were open and fully representative, it should be initiated in 1995 through consultations between the British and Chinese sides. addition, he pressed for the voting system in the legislature after 1997 to be the one to which Hong Kong was accustomed.

In

Second, a reply of 20 January 1990 delivered by Mr Chen Ziying, then head of the Hong Kong and Macao affairs office of The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to the then British Ambassador. The Chinese side made clear that they could not agree to Mr Hurd's proposals on directly-elected seats.

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