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O 041055Z MAY 06
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TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6502
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HONG KONG 001862 
 
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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 
 
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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 
 
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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