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Bid to keep legislators after 1997

Louis Won

IF China holds fresh polls in 1997, all legislators should face re-election, Meeting Point legislator Fred Li Wah-ming told the FAC yesterday.

He said that would prevent Beijing ejecting those politicians it did not like and filling the vacancies.

Mr Li said his group wanted all legislators to serve beyond 1997.

''But if we cannot get a guarantee that all the legislators can ride the through train, we told the FAC members we preferred choosing all the legislators again in 1997 to kicking two or three of them off the train,'' he said.

Mr Li told the FAC that if the two sides could not reach an agreement, the Legislative Council should make a decision on how to arrange the 1994/95 elections.

He was told the FAC expected Sino-British relations to improve in the long run.

Another Meeting Point legislator, Dr Leong Che-hung, told the FAC that he was worried that Britain would continue to make concessions in exchange for an agreement with China.

United Democrat legislator Martin Lee Chu-ming said he told the MPs that the British Government should not make concessions every time the Chinese Government accused it of doing something wrong.

He said that although the Chinese side often said the British side violated the ''three accords'', - the Basic Law, the Joint Declaration and previous Sino-British agreements - he found the accusations groundless.

''The MPs told me they couldn't see how Mr Patten's proposals violate the ''three accords''. I told them I could not see that either,'' he said.

''I told them that the Chinese side always talked about the 'three violations' but they should prove what they say.'' Independent legislator Eric Li Ka-cheun said he told the MPs that Britain could not get rid of its responsibility for Hong Kong just by giving the territory small progress in political reforms.

The British Government also had to deal with other problems, including the slow progress of the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group negotiations and the lack of a human right commission in Hong Kong.

Independent legislators Emily Lau Wai-hing, Christine Loh Kung-wai and Anna Wu Hung-yuk said they wanted a referendum to let Hong Kong people choose whether they wanted full democracy in the 1995 Legco election.

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