§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the future of democracy in Hong Kong; and what recent discussions have taken place with China on Hong Kong. [157566]
§ Mr. RammellThe Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), a Chinese law which was promulgated in Beijing in April 1990, states that the methods for selecting the chief executive and forming the Legislative Council
shall be specified in the light of the actual situation in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and in accordance with the principle of gradual and orderly progress".The "ultimate aim" is the selection of the chief executive and election of all members of the Legislative Council by universal suffrage.Our position is consistent: we hope to see early progress towards the Basic Law's ultimate aims of the selection of the chief executive and the election of all members of the Legislative Council by universal suffrage, at a pace in line with the wishes of the people of Hong Kong. We most recently re-stated this position in the latest Report to Parliament on Hong Kong, which was published on 24 February (Cmnd 6125).
Ministers and officials regularly discuss Hong Kong matters when meeting members of the Chinese and Hong Kong SAR Governments. I did so with Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui and with Hong Kong's Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa when I visited China and Hong Kong in December.