CONFIDENTIAL
Reference.
Mr David (HKD)
* Another group, mention
Legal emigrants from China
1. We were interested to read r Chui's report on present Chinese policy on the issue of exit permits to Chinese emigrants to Hong Kong, sent under cover of the APA's letter of February 7 to Mr Fenn.
2.
Mr Chui's observations at para.2 of his report are confirmation that the criteria laid down by the State Council in March 1972 are still adhered to. Travellers interviewed over the past 3-4 years on entry into Hong Kong have referred to five or six criteria. One such traveller, whose debriefing was carried in the "Travellers Tales" series in a report dated February 1, 1974, listed five qualifications for exit from China. Some of them tally with points in the six criteria recorded by Er Chui. The five qualifying categories are:
cd in a"Travoll ers Tales" report of Nov.26.1973,
"ere mergong wishing to
leave China to take over businesses in Hong Kong or foreign countries. This might bear some relation- ship to Tr
Chui's category
V.
(a) those who returned to China from overseas
during an anti-Chinese period (cf category iii in Mr Chui's list);
(b) students who returned to China from an
overseas birthplace (cf categories ii and vi);
(c) those who wish to take over property
inherited overseas (cf category iv in Mr Chui's list);
(d) women married over 10 years wishing to
join husbands living outside China (cf category ii in Ir Chui's list);
(e) aged and infirm people without support,
whose relatives live outside China (cf category i in r Chui's list).
3. I have never seen the six criteria promulgated by the State Council in a published form. The only references have occurred in
informal material such as that presented in "Travellers Tales". I am not sure how to interpret the divergences between the five criteria given above and the six given by Fr Chui. It is possible that some discretion is allowed at a local level in the interpretation of the criteria; or the State Council's six points are taken as a basis for decisions on the granting of exit permits. Another traveller's report of November 12, 1973, insisted that approval for all applications was still based on the original six criteria promulgated by the State Council in March 1972.
4. Other directives have been issued in China dealing with the granting of exit permits to Chinese, in particular Overseas Chinese. However,
DD 145177 219242 500M 4,73 GM 3643/2
/even
CONFIDENTIAL