§ Diana OrganTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the development of democracy in Hong Kong. [134201]
§ Mr. MacShaneThe Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) contains provisions regarding the methods of selecting the Chief Executive of the SAR and the formation of the Legislative Council. The Basic Law (Annexes I and II) provides for possible changes to these methods from 2007 with the "ultimate aim" being the election of the Chief Executive and all members of the Legislative Council by universal suffrage.
The SAR Government have recently announced that they will start consulting the public about constitutional reform in early 2004. We welcome this. We have made it clear that we hope that the SAR Government will make early progress towards the Basic Law's ultimate aims of universal suffrage, at a pace in line with the wishes of the Hong Kong people.