Apart from being distributed among the di-afters and CCBL members, these discussion and reference papers were also given out to the public free of charge. A total of 5,600 copies of these papers, 4,000 copies in Chinese and 1,600 copies in English, were given out by the Secretariat.
Invitation to Mainland Drafters for Exchange of Views in Hong Kong
6. Exchange of opinions with visiting mainland drafters is an important aspect of this consultation exercise. The first delegation of mainland drafters led by Mr Wang Hanbin, Vice Chairman of the Drafting Committee, together with experts and staff of the Secretariat of the Drafting Committee (totalling 14 people) visited Hong Kong from 20 April to 3 May, Along with their Hong Kong counterparts, the mainland drafters attended five exchange sessions with the special groups of the CCBL, and received the preliminary views of individuals and organizations in Hong Kong on the Basic Law (Draft). They also responded to and elaborated on certain questions. One special feature of this visit is that they joined many activities organized by other bodies, such as visiting community bodies and local districts and attending seminars on invitation. In this way they could reach out to different strata of the community and solicit their opinions. The first delegation of mainland drafters attended more than 30 exchange sessions (with a total of over 800 participant-counts) during their stay in Hong Kong.
7. Three delegations of mainland drafters were originally scheduled to visit Hong Kong during this consultation period. However, the activities of the other two delegations originally scheduled for late May and late June were all cancelled. The Executive Committee understood the urgent request of CCBL members and members of various sectors in Hong Kong for direct dialogues with mainland drafters. Especially after the Beijing incident, these people were all the more concerned about their future and hoped that the mainland drafters would come to Hong Kong to share their anxiety. After the consultations had fully resumed and during their visit to Beijing in mid-August, the Executive Committee members relayed time and again the above-mentioned concerns to the Drafting Committee and reiterated that the invitation to mainland drafters to visit Hong Kong remained valid. However, the mainland drafters maintained that the exchange of opinions on the Basic Law (Draft) had to be conducted on the bases of mutual respect and mutual trust. Since these conditions did not exist then, no more visits were paid to Hong Kong.
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