Beijing gave in to London on elected Legco 'at last minute'

Beijing made a last-minute concession in 1984 to London's proposal that the Sino-British Joint Declaration would specify that the post-1997 Legislative Council should be elected, according to former Hong Kong governor David Wilson.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post in London, Wilson said the clause in the first annex of the 1984 joint declaration stating that "the legislature of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall be constituted by elections" was only "put right in the last moment".

"It was one of the things we argued for, but China initially resisted it. That was the final concession on the Chinese side," he said.

The draft of the accord was signed on September 26, 1984. The formal agreement was signed by then premier Zhao Ziyang and British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in Beijing on December 19 that year.

Wilson, who was assistant undersecretary of state in Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1984, was a member of the British team that negotiated the text of the agreement with Beijing.

Wilson, who served as governor from 1987 to 1992, is now a member of the House of Lords.

The former governor's recollection was in line with declassified British government records, which revealed then foreign secretary Geoffrey Howe proposed on September 6, 1984 that London should accept Beijing's position that the chief executive could be chosen by "election or consultation" in return for a statement in the joint declaration that the legislature should be elected.