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The following is the transcript (English portion) of the media session by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mr Donald Tsang, after meeting Mr Xu Ze at the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office this afternoon (February 9) in Beijing:

Chief Secretary: I have a very substantive and a very friendly exchange with the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office today. I made an introduction on the way we looked at the matters of principle and procedures relating to constitutional development as enshrined in the Basic Law. I have told them how we have listened to the views of the Hong Kong people so far. Director Xu was agreeable that we had to look at these matters of principle as a matter of priority, in order to establish a good foundation for considering various options of changing the methods of electing the legislature or selecting the Chief Executive.

He also agreed that the matters of principle we raised in the paper issued to the Legislative Council were concerning HKSAR and the Central People's Government's (CPG) relationship, concerning the principle of gradualism and even participation in the governance of Hong Kong as spoken by Director Ji (Pengfei) in 1990. Those are the matters of concern to the Central Government as well.

He understood that this was the early part of our discussion in Hong Kong on these matters of principle. He has suggested we should continue this discussion. You also appreciated that this was the first exchange we had with the CPG on this and we have to dwell on these issues later on.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Monday, February 9, 2004

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