HC Deb 15 January 1997 vol 288 cc311-2
8. Mr. Austin Mitchell

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will take the Chinese Government's decision to abolish the Hong Kong Legislative Council to the International Court of Justice and the Security Council. [9240]

Mr. Rifkind

I refer the hon. Gentleman to the statement on the provisional legislature that I issued on 20 December 1996, a copy of which has been placed in the Libraries of the House. I said that we would be willing to join China in submitting the question of a provisional legislature to independent legal settlement, for example to the International Court of Justice. The Chinese Government have not accepted that proposal.

Mr. Mitchell

I am grateful to the Foreign Secretary for a serious, if belated, answer to a serious question. Does he agree that the Chinese decision to abolish the Legislative Council is contradictory and damaging to the joint declaration and to democracy in Hong Kong? That decision derails the through train of democracy, allows the Chinese to impose their own terms on franchises and qualifications for standing and bodes ill for an easy transition. Will he raise the matter in every available forum of world opinion and say that, if the Chinese do not agree, as he said in his November statement, to put it to the international court, they must have something to hide, and that is unacceptable?

Mr. Rifkind

I agree with the hon. Gentleman. The requirements of the joint declaration and the Basic Law envisage an elected Legislative Council, and I do not believe that it can be seriously proposed that a hand-picked electorate of 400—the body that chose the provisional legislature—in any way meets those requirements. We have made our views clear, and the Democratic party in Hong Kong has welcomed the British Government's response to the Chinese action. Good statements have been made by the United States and several other countries, and the Chinese can be in no doubt about the serious view of their action taken not only by the United Kingdom but by the international community.