SIGNIFICANT concessions by Britain on Governor Chris Patten's proposed constitutional reforms received a cool reception from China yesterday, according to senior sources, as the ninth round of Sino-British talks got underway in Beijing.
The new British package, understood to comprise a watering-down of the sweeping pro-democratic changes unveiled by the Governor last October, apparently still does not go far enough.
Sources close to the Chinese negotiating team said it would still take some time before any agreement could be reached.
The revised proposals focus on the functional constituency elections, for which nine new seats will be created for the 1995 poll, and the composition of the committee which will appoint another 10 councillors to the 1995 legislature.
Under the revamped functional constituency poll, the British side envisages about one million voters taking part, compared with the Patten proposal that would have meant 2.7 million people casting ballots.
But sources said China's major aim was to see existing rules on who could and could not vote in functional constituencies applied to the nine new seats, and not turned into a disguised form of direct elections.