TNAG-2778-FCO40-3995-Future-of-Hong-Kong-Basic-Law-1993 — Page 7

CODE RAD

Mr Bunten HKD

UNCLASSIFIED 12/1

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

1993

DESK OFFICER

INDEX

PA

REGISTRY Achon Taken

ра B. L-aw

льчиро

©

Reference

HONG KONG TRANSLATION OF BOOK ON THE BASIC LAW

1.

You asked whether it was worth looking at the translation on the Basic Law sent to you under cover of Ms Choy's letter of 23 December. I am sorry that it has taken me such a long time to get round to commenting, but it was quite a wodge of paper. I have attempted a synopsis, but even that is a pretty daunting document as you will see from the attached note.

2. This is very similar in style and content to the book on the Basic Law that I worked on, though it is of more recent date. As you know from your own thinking about the Basic Law, one can go round and round in circles. This book is very helpful in so doing. The style of it is often a lengthy paraphrase of a particular article in the Basic Law repeated in several different ways. It is nonetheless useful in providing insights into the way the Chinese approach their thinking about the Basic Law and it deals with many subjects that have been controversial both here and in Hong Kong (the application of the PRC Constitution, stationing of the PLA in Hong Kong, powers of the PRC government to intervene in Hong Kong etc). There is also quite a helpful narrative of the main stages in the drafting of the BL in the introductory chapter.

3. The chapters so far translated reinforce the familiar impression of China's obsession with sovereignty, and its implications. The authors have taken great pains to refute any suggestion that the Hong Kong SAR would be comparable to a member of a federal state, and lose no opportunity to to restate the SAR's formal subordination to the People's Republic of China. similarly the book is careful to make correct political statements when the occasion demands. For example, over the nationality package it lays down carefully China's formal position that it does not accept the British Nationality Hong Kong Bill (undertaken without consultation and in violation of solemn commitments) and retains the right to take appropriate measures; or over the stationing of a PLA garrison, it says:" It is for the country's defence needs and also for the manifestation of its sovereignty that troops will be sent and stationed in Hong Kong by the Central authorities. There should be no doubt about this.....Any opposition to the stationing of troops is in fact an attempt to alter the Joint Declaration. This of course must not be allowed".

4.

A fundamental Chinese attitude is summed up in the following quotation (page 196), written before the present controversy, but illustrative of the difference in approach to the Basic Law: When examining the relationship between the central authorities and the the HKSAR, we must be guided by the basic principles and policies promulgated by the state, using the relevant provision in the Basic Law as our basis. Only in this way can we get the right answer. When talking about the relationship between the central

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