MR GOODLAD'S MEETINGS WITH JACK CUNNINGHAM MPFAND PADDY ASHDOWN MP]
Hong Kong
Points to make
Statement an
Maday.
Our talks with China have not produced the interim deal we had
hoped for. Chris Patten will be informing LegCo on 2 December of what we plan to do now. Wanted to give you advance notice of substance of his statement. Nomaly Douglas Hand would do this. But today is his only day in the
i
very busy
WellC.
- Our objectives in these negotiations have been electoral
arrangements that are open, fair and acceptable to the people of Hong Kong: if we compromise to the point where elections are vulnerable to manipulation, we undermine the rule of law.
- We have pulled out all the stops to reach an agreement in the
talks. Clear from the outset that they could not drag on
indefinitely. We therefore explored fully a Chinese suggestion
that we should deal with the easier issues first, in order to
leave time for resolving the more difficult questions.
- The last couple of months have been spent trying to reach such an interim agreement. The Chinese side were willing to agree to some of our proposals for the District Board and Municipal Council elections (voting age of 18, voting method).
But they were more difficult over our proposal (strongly supported in Hong Kong) to abolish the appointed members in
these bodies.
- The Chinese have said publicly that they wanted a first-stage
deal confined to DBS and MCs. In fact, their own proposal was
that some elements should also be extended to cover LegCo. We
considered it essential that a first-stage deal should also
cunn.mke.JM
SLM
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