TNAG-2716-FCO40-3922-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1993 — Page 98

Mr Chen Ziving

State Council)

Annex F

Message from

(Hong Kong & Macau Affairs Office.

to British Ambassador in Peking

(8 February 1999)

Pessace

.ena

passed

experto

lan the

have reported =0 Foreign Minister

Ambassador had conveyed to the Chinese cide on

the British side on 6 February and I have also

the three

enclosed therewith to our

jocuments

ก the Basic Law. I am hereby instructed to give the following reply:

elected

спас

-man 13

With regard to the

proportion of the directly

members, the Chinese side has long made it clear

che British side would undertake to have no more

members directly elected to the 1991 Hong Kong Legislative Council on a geographical constituency basis,

the Chinese side would consider to increase the number of

the directly elected members in the first Legislative

Council of the SAR to 28. The Chinese side would like to

see this point confirmed in

Side prior to the ninth

Committee of the Basic Law. Otherwise, the Chinese side

Would consider as the final decision the 18 directly elected seats proposal adopted by the Special Group on the Political Structure of the Basic Law Drafting Committee.

2.

Chinese

written form by the British

plenary session of the Drafting

With regard to the electoral committee, the side agrees with the five principles concerning the committee proposed by the British side in the document. However, the Chinese side maintains that the provisions on the composition and ratio of the electoral committee as

specified in Paragraph 2 of

(Draft) must be followed

composition.

Annex I of the Basic Law

in terms of its proportional This is because Annex I was approved by a two-thirds majority of the membership of the Drafting Committee at its eighth plenary session. China believes

that its provisions on composition and ratio are appropriate and should therefore not be subject to change.