TNAG-2735-FCO40-3943-Hong-Kong-role-of-the-Legislative-Council-(LEGCO)-1993 — Page 70

SECRET

- para 126: The statement that before 1997 the posts of CS, FS, AG, policy secretaries and some others would be filled by Chinese nationals who have no foreign right of abode will (or should) be welcome to the Chinese.

- para 146: The reference to discussing concrete measures

to envisage the development of a series of new exchanges. While this should sound positive to the Chinese the Governor might want to draw attention to it in his message to Lu Ping.

- para 156: At his 9 July meeting with Qian Qichen the Secretary of State asked the Chinese to sign up to the covenants tout court, not just in respect of Hong Kong. therefore suggest omitting "in respect of Hong Kong",

- para 161, 4th tiret: referring to more "authority" supports the Chinese notion that we are trying to change the nature of the DBS and MCs. Something along the lines of "developing the role of the DBS and MCs.." might avoid this.

We

- para 162; in view of the lengthy arguments we had with the Chinese over how to describe our team, it might be less provocative to refer to "members" rather than "representatives" of the administration.

- para 166: The penultimate sentence is not strictly

accurate. We suggest replacing the second half with "...of the kind set out in the Basic Law for the post-1997 Election Committees."

- para 167: The final sentence of this paragraph might come over at this stage as unnecessarily provocative. Since the points which it makes are implicit in the rest of the paragraph we suggest omitting this sentence and amending the penultimate sentence to read "It is about ensuring that that democratic development is open and fair, providing an essential safeguard for the rule of law."

- para 168: We are not necessarily seeking an agreement on objective criteria. Since the responsibility lies with the 1996 Preparatory Committee clear assurances would do. We suggest rewording the second sentence: "We shall also continue to seek from the Chinese Government clear and unambiguous assurances that there will be satisfactory objective criteria for the through train,..." The last sentence would then read "There can be no agreement on electoral arrangements unless we can settle this matter properly."

SECRET