RESTRICTED
Chinese side to areas in the draft Basic Law which in our view
were inconsistent with the Joint Declaration or which might
cause the Hong Kong Government practical difficulties. Indeed
many of our suggestions have been reflected in the final
version of the Basic Law. However, the Basic Law was not a document to which the British Government gave or had to give its agreement.
Consistency of Proposals announced by the Governor with Basic
Law and Joint Declaration
The British Government's proposals announced by the Governor in October 1992 are fully consistent with the Joint Declaration.
There cannot be any question of a breach of the Joint
Declaration.
Annex I merely provides that the legislature shall be "constituted by elections". Annex II provides for closer co-operation in the second half of the period up to 1 July 1997. But this principle has not been breached by our
proposals. We have made proposals and we have been and are still discussing them in good faith with the Chinese side. It is absurd to say that there has been a lack of co-operation on our part. As regards consistency with the BL, perhaps it would help the Committee if I were to deal with each of these seven
proposals in turn.
(i)
To lower the voting age from 21 to 18.
The BL does not specify a voting age for any elections in Hong Kong.
18 is the voting age in
both the UK and China.
(ii)
(ii)
(a) To replace the corporate voting in existing
functional constituencies by individual voters.
The BL does not define the electorate in
functional constituencies.
(b) To propose 9 new functional constituencies.
(This is consistent with Paragraph 6 of the
RESTRIC
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