26 October 1992
CONFIDENTIAL
Kikis arlo нив
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
London SWIA 2AH
HKD
Bra (wal
Жила
Angle
Dear Sterom
быст
HONG KONG
Miss Sander
You asked for an update on the plan to publish Ministerial exchanges with the Chinese about election arrangements.
^ Q
27/10
Chinese officials claimed to the Governor in Peking last week that there was a "clear and explicit understanding" in 1990 exchanges between the Chinese and British Governments on one part of the arrangements for the 1995 Legislative Council (LegCo) elections. This concerns the "Election Committee" which will be responsible for electing 10 out of 60 seats in the 1995 LegCo.
The Chinese said that the Governor's proposals on the composition of the Election Committee were at odds with this agreement, and suggested publishing the texts.
The essence of these exchanges is that we were trying to reach agreement with the Chinese on a package of electoral arrangements to be put into the Basic Law. We gave them ideas for forming an Election Committee. But these were contingent on achieving a satisfactory overall package. The final version of the Basic Law was not satisfactory. So there was no deal on arrangements for the
1995 elections.
Chinese officials referred to these messages at a press conference. This has caused a stir in the Hong Kong Press. The Governor has said publicly that there was no secret agreement and that he would have no objection to Britain and China agreeing to publish the texts.
The Governor strongly recommends that we should go ahead and publish them quickly. Otherwise our tactical position will be very weak. I enclose copies of the documents he wishes to make public.
Our position is not entirely comfortable. The messages do show that we were willing in principle to accept Chinese suggestions for an Election Committee different to the one now proposed by the Governor. But we have strong points to rebut any suggestion of bad faith:
CONFIDENTIAL
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