Senior government officials held two meetings with nearly 300 Hong Kong people in Shenzhen, in the southern province of Guangdong, on Thursday to solicit views on the tenure of the special administrative region's new chief executive (CE).

Qiao Xiaoyang, deputy secretary-general of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, said great attention would be paid to views from all walks of life in Hong Kong, including those contradicting the central government's.

The State Council has asked the NPC Standing Committee for an interpretation of Hong Kong's Basic Law with regard to the by-election of a new CE after disagreement on the issue following Tung Chee Hwa's resignation last month.

Xinhua News Agency reported that most speakers at the meetings agreed the next CE should be selected by the Election Committee and approved by central government, and that their tenure should be for the remainder of Tung's, not a full five year term.

It also said a majority had agreed that the NPC Standing Committee is empowered to render an interpretation of Hong Kong's Basic Law, and that Annex I of the Basic Law meant CE selection methods after 2007 could be amended.

The standing committee's chairman and vice-chairpersons' meeting on Monday had entrusted Qiao to exchange views with Hong Kong NPC deputies, Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference members and others.

Li Fei, deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee; Zhang Xiaoming, deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council and Wang Fengchao, deputy director of the Liaison Office of the central government in Hong Kong, also attended the meetings.

Qiao reiterated a commitment to the "One Country, Two Systems" principle, to Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy, and to handling Hong Kong affairs according to its Basic Law and maintaining its prosperity and stability.

(Xinhua News Agency April 22, 2005)