TNAG-2771-FCO40-3988-Coverage-of-Sino-British-talks-in-the-Hong-Kong-press-1993 — Page 63

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PEKING, UKREP JLG HONG KONG

INFO ROUTINE HKGO WASHINGTON, HKGO NEW YORK INFO HKGO SAN FRANCISCO, HKGO GENEVA

HONG KONG FUTURE: PRESS COVERAGE: (21.9-24.9)

SUMMARY

Apart from speculation on the talks on HK's electoral arrangements in 1994/95, there was extensive coverage on the announcement of a series of senior Government appointments, especially the appointment of Mrs Anson Chan as the first Local Chief Secretary.

Talks

2. TVB quoted (21.9) a British source as saying the last two rounds of talks were not totally without progress, though the two sides still had substantial differences on the new functional constituencies and the through train. While expecting that the forthcoming ministerial meeting was unlikely to fully settle the issues, the source was hopeful the meeting would result in more progress on the CT9 project and other outstanding issues which the JLG had failed to resolve. The source said the Governor would not table his proposals in Legco when he delivered his policy address next month and the talks would continue. Quoting a Chinese source, the station said the Chinese side did not want to see the talks to come to no agreement, adding that the 12th round would make progress so as to pave the way for the ministerial meeting.

3. According to the Oriental Daily, (23.9) on the Election Committee, the Chinese side's idea was to have four groups of people to each nominate three people making a total of 12 from whom 10 of them would be elected to LegCo. The paper quoted Chinese sources as saying the Election Committee was responsible to return 10 out of 60 Legislators. Therefore it was very important that these members should be returned in accordance with the BL. The sources said there was tacit understanding in the seven diplomatic

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