Dr Ricketts
HKD
а
Or 28/1
PS/Mr Goodlad
MR Gorolad hav
Private Secretary
SECRET
Teen, ut siy
Ilen
As यौन
R.
Cons
Constitutional
Development
30/7
21 JUL 1992
FROM: CO Hum
DATE: 21 July 1992
CC:
(69
Sir J Coles Mr Davies, FED HKMr Ricketts, HKD
Mr Cornish, News Dept
SECRETARY OF STATE'S VISIT TO HONG KONG: DISCUSSIONS WITH THE GOVERNOR ON POLITICAL ISSUES
1. I agree with the comments in Mr Ricketts' submission, which reflect a number of discussions over the past few days.
He
2. Mr Ricketts identifies very clearly the points on which discussion at the Governor's working supper on 26 July could best be focussed. I share his view that the most problematic aspect of the Governor's proposals is the extent of the unveiling process in his address to LegCo in early October. has confirmed in a subsequent telegram that he is "daily more convinced of the need to unveil all this [ExCo/LegCo proposals and arrangements for 1995] as a package". But there are clear disadvantages in launching our negotiation with the Chinese on 1995 issues by setting out our position in public. I think it would be easier to handle a sequence of steps whereby the Governor did no more than outline the general principles underlying his approach to these issues in his LegCo address; he then set out our initial position in private during his subsequent visit to Peking; and subsequent exchanges (which are likely to be prolonged) were also conducted in private. Otherwise our eventual relinquishment of the card of an increase in directly elected seats, having made the maximum use of it to secure Chinese agreement on other points, risks taking on the quality of a public climbdown.
3. In my view Peking telno 1054 may overstate the risk of an immediately negative Chinese reaction to the Governor's ideas on ExCo and LegCo. The Chinese will grasp at once that their main point (excluding the United Democrats from ExCo) has been met. For the rest they will be intensely suspicious: but we have a fair chance of preventing them from adopting a publicly hostile position provided that the ideas are carefully presented and in particular that the "hinge" body does not look to them as though it will supplant ExCo. One analogy that we might use would be China's own People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a toothless United Front body bringing together the non-communist parties and individuals of standing.
SECRET
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