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SCMP Reporter

QUIETLY but significantly Hong Kong has moved closer to Chinese rule as the 1997 sovereignty changeover ticks away.

  Names are being tipped at hotels in Central and on radio talk shows for the first Chief Executive, who will only be decided in the fourth quarter of 1996.

  Not known for his interest in talking politics, tycoon Li Ka-shing explained again and again the demerits of giving the top post to a business figure, as if the whistle for the race for the top post had already been blown.

  The idea of setting up a provisional legislature, which was merely 'one of the options' at the beginning of a Preliminary Working Committee plenum, emerged as a decision in another name on December 8.

  A detailed timetable was laid down at the end of the PWC plenary session on the establishment of the Preparatory Committee, Selection Committee and provisional legislature as well as the selection of the Chief Executive.

  On the Sino-British/Hong Kong front, signs of a return to quiet diplomacy have surfaced after more than two years of bitter rhetoric.

  Inside a five-star hotel in Central, Legal Department law draftsmen have been showing a group of PWC members their programme for keeping the statute book in line with the Basic Law through the process of localisation and adaptation.

  In another sign of the warming of ties, Secretary for Planning, Environment and Land Tony Eason clinked glasses with a senior Chinese official Zhang Liangdong to celebrate the establishment of the Infrastructure Co-ordinating Committee.

  The ICC is expected to meet before the Lunar New Year and map out details of the new mechanism on cross-border talks on infrastructure plans.

  In London, British envoys were introducing a government initiative to show how Finance Branch officials prepared for the budget.

  The wind of change is clear from the statement by Vice-Premier Qian Qichen at the three-day PWC plenum which ended earlier this month in Beijing when compared with another he delivered to the same group of advisers in July.

  While 'self-reliance' was still China's 'basic standpoint,' he said: 'I must emphasise that self-reliance does not mean refusing British co-operation. On the contrary, we welcome co-operation.

  'We welcome co-operation . . . in line with the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law, co-operation that is trustworthy, for it is only that kind of co-operation that is constructive,' he said.

  Mr Qian, also the Foreign Minister, said: 'The British side has recently said something on their hope for co-operation and doing something. Doing something is better than nothing at all.'   Almost half a year after the Governor Chris Patten's political reform became law, the format of Sino-British co-operation on transitional matters of the enclave has surfaced.

  The finale of the British colonial rule has quietly unfolded.

  The PWC, China's vehicle for paving the way for the 1997 takeover, has endorsed proposals compiled by its five sub-groups in the past five months. A set of items has been laid down for the sub-groups when they resume meetings beginning early next month.

  More significantly, Mr Qian has spelled out in more definite terms its two-pronged tactics in making preparations with 'both hands' on Hong Kong matters during the count-down to 1997.

  On one hand, the PWC will be gearing up its work programme over the nitty-gritty on such matters as the jurisdiction and powers of the provisional legislature, composition of the Preparatory Committee and nomination procedure for the first Chief Executive.

  On the other, the Chinese cadres are ready to broach limited co-operation with the administration on a spate of concrete matters on the transfer of sovereignty.

  On a more conciliatory note, Mr Qian has given the cue to the British side that it was doing the right thing at the right time - though not yet enough to meet the Chinese appetite.

  The Vice-Premier put pressure on the Government for it to change its policy towards the PWC.

  To the Patten government, the ban on his senior aides taking part in 'formal' meetings of the PWC is strategically pivotal. Some describe it as the last defence of the British administration's colonial rule.

  By dismissing the PWC as merely an advisory body in his Policy Address, Mr Patten was seeking to buy more time until 1996 for concrete talks on handover matters when the Preparatory Committee is set up.

  Faced with the tough Chinese stance and a slight improvement in Sino-British ties, it appears that the Government has now attempted to maximise flexibility in contacts between civil servants and PWC members within the boundary of the existing guidelines.

  The 'informal contacts' between law drafters and PWC's legal sub-group members could be the first of many contacts next year. The initiative by Treasury Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen to devise a procedure of dialogue with Chinese officials on the budget is another case of how bureaucrats are seeking to break the ice over official contacts.

  While the ban on 'official' between civil servants and PWC members is set to stay, contacts in various forms and at different venues on transitional issues will multiply in 1995.

  This will go side by side with talks at greater length at diplomatic venues such as the Joint Liaison Group on concrete and sensitive handover matters, which were formally discussed at the plenum which ended in London last night.

  On the PWC front, the endorsement of the plan to set up an interim legislature by Mr Qian indicated the urgency with which the Chinese Government is seizing the chance of an early conclusion so as to avoid further argument on the viability of the idea.

  Beijing is anxious to get on as soon as possible with the task of finalising details of issues such as the provisional legislature, Preparatory Committee and Selection Committee.

  Publicly and behind the scenes, ideas will again be flying around on where the seats on the significant committees will go. And more significant, the chosen one for the first Chief Executive.

  As the line-up of the Government's top echelon is finalised and the three-tier elections are completed next autumn, China's own team will be taking shape, readying for the takeover.



China and Britain join the anniversary waltz