TNAG-2804-FCO40-4044-National-People-s-Congress-and-Chinese-People-s-Political-Co-1993 — Page 3

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HICC 024/1 UNCLASSIFIED ISTRY

MAI 1993

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Hong Kong Department

HONG KONG AND MACAU NPC DELEGATES

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1. You will have seen in the Press comments that the number of Hong Kong and Macau Delegates to the NPC (28 from Hong Kong and 3 from Macau) has now passed the magic number of 30 which would give them, should they choose to act in concert, the opportunity to make certain proposals at the NPC without having to rely on support from other mainland colleagues. You may be interested in having some details of exactly what the delegation could now do under Chinese law.

2. The 1982 Organic Law of the National People's Congress contain two articles that are relevant. Article 10 states that: "A delegation or a group of 30 or more deputies may submit to the National People's Congress that fall within the scope of its functions and powers. The Presidium may decide whether or not to put bills or proposals on the agenda of the Congress, or may refer the bills or proposals to the relevant Special Committees for deliberation and after receiving their opinions then decide whether or not to put the bills or proposals on the agenda of the Congress. Article 16 similarly states that: "During a session of the National People's Congress, a delegation or a group of 30 or more deputies may address written questions to the State Council and the Ministries and Commissions under the State Council. The Presidium shall decide whether to refer the questions to the organs concerned for written replies or to ask for leaders of those organs to give oral replies at the meetings of the Presidium, the relevant Special Committees or the relevant Delegations. If the replies are to be given at meetings of the Presidium or Special Committees, the head of the delegation or of the group of deputies who address the questions may also attend the meetings to express their opinions." What this seems to boil down to is that the Hong Kong and Macau deputies can now, acting as a group, put formal proposals to the NPC whereas previously they could only do so as members of the Guangdong delegation (if it chose to act in such a way) or if they could attract other deputies to their motion or intended action. So far as I can recall, there has been no previous formal action at the NPC initiated by the Hong Kong and Macau deputies acting as a group, although individuals have spoken. It remains to be seen whether the Hong Kong and Macau deputies will choose to exercise their potential privileges. It does mean that they can now introduce on to the agenda of the NPC in one form or another matters of concern that are not covered by the formal agenda. There is, of course, no chance of anything embarrassing to the Chinese authorities getting on to the agenda since among the Hong Kong and Macau deputies are a number of mainland officials such as Zhou Nan of the NCNA.

3.

There have been some suggestions (for example, those reported in Hong Kong telno.76 of 16 January) that the Chinese were considering forming the new Hong Kong and Macau NPC Delegates into a Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Committee under the NPC. Such a body will presumably be analogous to the existing Specialist Committees

UNCLASSIFIED