TNAG-2777-FCO40-3994-Parliamentary-relations-White-Paper-on-Representational-Gove-1993 — Page 32

G.F 316

1.

SECRET 高度機密

Appointed Membership

PAO(S) 2/1156/91

Miss Sanders

Largely incorporated

into the White

Paper

For the first fourteen rounds of the negotiations the Chinese side opposed the British side's proposal to abolish appointed membership of District Boards and Municipal Councils. At Round 15 they put forward their first specific proposal, which was that the proportion of appointed seats should be reduced, from roughly a third to roughly a quarter of the whole. When the British side rejected this the Chinese proposed, on the second day of Round 15, an agreement to disagree formula on appointed membership, as part of a first

The formula read as follows: stage understanding.

"The British side propose abolishing the appointed membership in the DBS and the two

CS in the 1994/95 elections.

The Chinese

side propose that in 1994/95 a certain

proportion of the membership of these

district organisations should continue to be

After 30 June 1997, the

appointed members.

Government of the Hong Kong SAR shall

determine on its own the number of appointed members on the DBS and two MCs in accordance with the provisions of Article 98 of the

Basic Law."

2.

Six days after Round 15 ended, on 3 November, the British Ambassador gave the Chinese a draft MoU for a first stage understanding incorporating an agreement to disagree

This made it clear that based closely on the Chinese formula.

the British side intended to introduce legislation to abolish

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