FORMER JUSTICE SECRETARY ELSIE LEUNG TO LEAD

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HONG KONG 001862 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EAP, EAP/CM NSC FOR DENNIS WILDER E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/04/2031 TAGS: PGOV PREL CH HK SUBJECT: FORMER JUSTICE SECRETARY ELSIE LEUNG TO LEAD DELEGATION TO THE U.S. REF: HONG KONG 1816 Classified By: E/P Section Chief Simon Schuchat; Reasons 1.4 (b, d) ¶1. (C) Summary: On May 7-18, former Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung, will lead a "Better Hong Kong Foundation" (BHKF) delegation to the U.S. to explain implementation of the "One Country, Two Systems" principle in Hong Kong since the 1997 handover to the PRC, as well as other political and economic issues. Leung also may address the recently revived issue of Article 23 national security legislation, which a PRC member of the Hong Kong Basic Law Committee (BLC) recently listed as one of six prerequisites for universal suffrage in Hong Kong. Responding to those comments, Leung, who in March was appointed Vice Chair of the Basic Law Committee, observed that implementation of universal suffrage in Hong Kong would require community consensus, and that it would be up to the Hong Kong Government to determine how to handle the Article 23 issue. End Summary. Visit to the U.S. -------------- ¶2. (SBU) On May 7-18, former Hong Kong Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung, who retired from Hong Kong Government service last October, will lead a "Better Hong Kong Foundation" (BHKF) delegation to Washington (May 7-10),New York City (May 10-14),Boston (May 14-16) and San Francisco (May 16-18). In Washington, in addition to calls at the Departments of State and Commerce, the group will meet with the U.S.-Asia Institute, the Brookings Institution, the Cato Institute, the U.S.-China Education Trust, the Fund for American Studies, the Heritage Foundation, the U.S.-China Working Group, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Capitol Hill Forum, and several media organizations. In New York, the delegation has scheduled meetings with a variety of investment banks and other organizations, including Morgan Stanley, Fortune Magazine, the Asia Society, the New York County Lawyers Association, Citibank, Hong Kong Shanghai Bank (HSBC),Standard and Poor's, the U.S.-Asia Institute, and Chinese media representatives. In Boston, the BHKF group will participate in activities at the Fletcher School of Diplomacy of Tufts University and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and also attend a lunch with corporate and legal leaders. In San Francisco, the delegation is scheduled to meet with the Hong Kong Student Association of Stanford University, the Pacific Council on International Policy, and the Institute of East Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. In Washington, New York, and San Francisco the delegation also will meet representatives of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office and/or the PRC Embassy/Consulates. ¶3. (SBU) Leung has told the local press that her delegation plans to discuss progress on implementation of the "One Country Two Systems" principle in Hong Kong since the 1997 handover to the PRC, but also may address the prospects for Article 23 National Security legislation for Hong Kong, the power of the PRC National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) to interpret Hong Kong's Basic Law, and other judicial and legal matters of concern in Hong Kong. According to BHKF chief executive George Yuen, while in Washington the group also hopes to learn U.S. views on Hong Kong and the impact on U.S.-PRC relations of the recent visit by PRC President Hu Jintao to the U.S. Although the BHKF annually organizes a visit of this sort to the U.S., Leung will be leading the group for the first time and may seek to use it to raise her political profile and agenda. Elsie Leung -------------- ¶4. (SBU) In March, Leung was appointed Vice Chairman of the Hong Kong Basic Law Committee (BLC). This twelve-member Committee advises the NPCSC on interpretations and amendments of the Basic Law. While previously the BLC has only convened meetings intermittently, in advance of interpretations of the Basic Law by the NPCSC, on May 2 Leung announced that henceforth the committee would meet twice yearly to study various aspects of Basic Law implementation, with the first such meeting to be held soon. At the same time, Leung said she had no plan to seek election as a Hong Kong deputy to the NPC. ¶5. (C) Leung served as Secretary for Justice from 1997 to 2005; in that capacity she was the principal legal advisor to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government HONG KONG 00001862 002 OF 002 (HKSARG) and also a member of the Executive Council. Prior to Hong Kong's reversion to the PRC in 1997, Leung was a legal advisor to Chief Executive-Designate Tung Chee-Hwa. During her tenure as Secretary for Justice, Leung was widely viewed as pro-Beijing and, according to some democrats, as not particularly sympathetic to their concerns about maintenance of Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy. Recently, however, Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal Justice Kemal Bokhary told poloff that he believed Leung had been an "unsung heroine" of Hong Kong during her tenure as Secretary for Justice. Bokhary, who has had decades of professional interaction with Leung, believed -- admittedly without concrete evidence -- that Leung had "talked them (the PRC Government) out of gross excesses" with regard to Hong Kong policy on multiple occasions. Somewhat similarly, on May 4, Lee Cheuk-yan, the pro-democratic Legislative Councilor from the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, told poloff that while Leung was pro-Beijing and would not "fight for the values of democracy," he nevertheless believed she was honest and "not a bad guy." Article 23 Security Legislation -------------- ¶6. (C) Coincidentally, Leung's visit will take place as the long-dormant debate over Article 23 of Hong Kong's Basic Law may be reappearing (septel). On April 27, Professor Wang Zhenmin, a PRC member of the BLC and Deputy Dean of the Tsinghua University Law School in Beijing, publicly asserted SIPDIS that enactment of Article 23 legislation was one of six prerequisites for establishment of universal suffrage and full democracy in Hong Kong (ref). That provision of the Basic Law requires, without specification of a timetable, the HKSARG to "enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government." In 2002-2004, during Leung's tenure as Secretary for Justice, the Article 23 legislation was SIPDIS politically by far the most contentious issue in Hong Kong, and public resistance to the legislation contributed to the high public disapproval ratings and eventual resignation of then-Chief Executive Tung Chee-Hwa. Cunningham