他们争夺的是香港回归后的主导政治制度

 钱其琛用以下的话总结了事关重大的事情--以及他所定义的中国胜利的性质。

当人们将来阅读外交文件时，他们会想，为什么双方会对一些直选席位如此激动......事实上，他们争夺的是香港回归后的主导政治制度。

他的意思是，中国已确保香港将继续由行政部门领导的制度，而不是由民主立法机构主导的制度；尽管行政部门将考虑公众意见，但它不会受制于公众。

在他自己的回忆录中，赫德对这一交流没有什么可说的，只是指出这些信件体现了关于如何在1991年进行选举的协议。

 这是一个真实的陈述，因为它承认在与中国的 "谅解 "中，有很多东西是模糊的，特别是在1990年和移交之间可能发生的事情。

 

Qian summed up what was at stake – and what he defined as the nature of China’s victory – in the following words: ‘When people read the diplomatic documents in future they will wonder why the two sides got so exercised about a number of directly elected seats … in fact, what they were fighting over was the dominant political system after the handover of Hong Kong.’ By this he meant that China had ensured that Hong Kong would continue to be governed by an executive-led system rather than one dominated by a democratic legislature; although the executive would take public opinion into account, it was not to be in thrall to it. In his own memoir Hurd had little to say on the exchange, noting only that the correspondence embodied the agreement on how to stage elections in 1991. This was a truthful statement in that it acknowledged that a great deal was left vague in ‘understandings’ with China, in particular over what might happen between 1990 and the handover.

 

中英两国的秘密会谈及时结束，全国人民代表大会于1990年4月在《基本法》上盖章。

香港对最后的草案表示不服气。

1997年，特别自治区的第一届立法会将有60名成员，但只有20名是由选区直接选举产生的。

10名由一个委员会选出，30名由 "功能组别 "选出，这是英国人留下的一个古老的公式，将席位分配给商业、专业和各种利益集团的代表，其中一些由少数选民选出。

在大多数民主国家，功能组别属于历史的灰烬，但在香港，它们将被延续下去。

 

The secret Anglo-Chinese talks concluded in time for the National People’s Congress to rubber-stamp the Basic Law in April 1990. Hong Kong greeted the final draft with resignation. The first Legislative Council of the Special Autonomous Region in 1997 would have sixty members but only twenty would be returned by direct elections in constituencies. Ten would be picked by a committee and thirty would be chosen by ‘functional constituencies’, an archaic formula bequeathed by the British which allocated seats to representatives of commerce, the professions and assorted interest groups, some chosen by a handful of electors. In most democracies, functional constituencies belonged on the ash heap of history, but in Hong Kong they were to be perpetuated.