APPENDIX 1
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE UPDATE
TO FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE REPORTS
THIRD REPORT: HONG KONG
6. This note follows the Foreign Secretary's
two responses to the Committee's report on Hong Kong. Since the
second, the Foreign Secretary has submitted three six-monthly
Hong Kong reports to Parliament (Cm 4415, Cm 4594 and Cm 4809).
We have also submitted a memorandum on Hong Kong and Macau as
one of our four memoranda for the Committee's inquiry into the
role and policies of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in relation
to the People's Republic of China.
7. Elections to the Hong Kong Legislative
Council (LegCo) were held on 10 September as planned, and were
judged free and fair. The largest party in the previous LegCo,
the Democratic Party, won 12 of the 60 seats, one fewer than at
the last elections in 1998. The second largest party in the last
LegCo, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong,
won 11 seats, two more than last time (although one of their legislators
subsequently resigned following a scandal). Nineteen legislators
are non-affiliated. The turnout rate was 43.6 per cent: a lower
figure than the turnout at the 1998 elections (53.3 per cent)
but higher than the turnout figures in the last two pre-handover
elections.
8. Meanwhile, debate on the development
of Hong Kong's political system has continued. In June the LegCo
panel on Constitutional Affairs called on the SAR Government to
conduct a review and carry out public consultation as soon as
possible. In his fourth Policy Address, delivered on 11 October,
Chief Executive C H Tung said that the SAR Government would look
at certain issues of governance in Hong Kong, including the accountability
of senior officials, communication between the executive and the
legislature and the composition of the Executive Council.
9. Our overall assessment remains that Hong
Kong's essential freedoms remain intact. However, there have been
a few new controversies since the last six-monthly report:
(a) In August and September, a number of
students were arrested who had been involved in street demonstrations
in April and June. The arrests were made under the Public Order
Ordinance, which requires organisers of demonstrations to give
the Police advance notice of any proposed march of more than 30
people or of any proposed assembly of more than 50. The SAR Government
has decided not to prosecute in respect of the April incident,
but has yet to decide on prosecution in respect of the June incident.
All the students were bailed after their arrest.
(b) Critics of the students' arrest have
called for liberalisation of the provisions of the Public Ordinance
governing demonstrations. They have expressed concern that, while
the Police have allowed many demonstrations (or a notifiable size)
to go ahead without advance notification, and there have to date
been no prosecutions, the SAR Government might use its power selectively
to prosecute those it regards as troublemakers. The Hong Kong
Bar Association has questioned whether the Ordinance complies
with the Basic Law's provisions on peaceful assembly and freedom
of expression and the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights.
(c ) Another controversy arose following
allegations made in July by a Hong Kong University academic, Robert
Chung, that he was given a message that C H Tung wanted him to
stop carrying out opinion polls on his popularity. An independent
University inquiry has found that Chung had been given a message
calculated to inhibit his academic freedom at the behest of the
Vice-Chancellor of the University; and that this was the result
of a conversation between the Vice Chancellor and Mr Tung's aide
Andrew Lo. The Vice-Chancellor denied that he had acted in any
improper way but resigned on 6 September. Academic freedom is
guaranteed under the Joint Declaration, and any suggestion that
it is being infringed would be a cause for concern; however, we
welcome the fact that there was an independent inquiry into this
incident.
10. In paragraphs 12-13 of the Foreign Secretary's
response of November 1998, he explained the position then on the
resolution of applications for British citizenship from persons
of ethnic Pakistani origin under the British Nationality (Hong
Kong) Act 1997. The Ethnic Minorities Citizenship Unit at the
British Consulate-General in Hong Kong was formally closed on
30 June 1999 and all residual work and new applications were transferred
to the Home Office. The Consulate-General continues to receive
applications under the Act and forward them to the Home Office
for processing. Approximately 600 cases involved applicants of
ethnic Pakistani origin whose applications for British citizenship
were dependent on whether they held Pakistani nationality on 4
February 1997. These included applications from children born
in Hong Kong to fathers who were Pakistani citizens at the time
of their children's birth. Meetings with the Pakistani authorities
in September 1999 confirmed that approximately 200 such children
held Pakistani nationality and therefore failed to qualify for
British citizenship under the 1997 Act since they held another
(non-British) nationality. Approximately 400 applicants were granted
British citizenship on the grounds that they did not hold Pakistani
nationality.
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