SCR 14/951/59 I
J T Masefield Esq
CONFIDENTIAL
Far Eastern Department
F CO
HKK.020/1
23 JAN 1978
9.SK OFFICER
INDEX
PA
12 January, 1978.
No thanpson
No A a w.q.111
HONG KONG AND CHINA:
CONFLICTING NEEDS FOR AIR SPACE
I am now in a position to give you a retrospective account of something which, at one time, looked as though it could develop into a tricky problem.
2.
Every year the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department organises a search and rescue exercise within the Kai Tak Flight Information Region but outside the Hong Kong square boundary. They planned one of these exercises to take place between 30 November and 2 December 1977. Besides local units, aircraft were to take part from the United States Air Force base in Okinawa; one aircraft each was also to come here from the UK and from Brunei. On 3 November a normal Notice to Airmen was issued warning non- participating aircraft to keep clear of the exercise area East South-East of Hong Kong.
3.
We now have a civil aviation teleprinter link to Canton; for the first time this notice was also sent direct to the Canton authorities. Three days later, with no reference to our message, Canton notified us that they had four aircraft which would operate daily training flights between 7 November and 31 December. The area in which they were to operate coincided with part of our chosen area; furthermore, the routes which the Chinese aircraft were to use to get to and from their exercise area effectively boxed in Hong Kong from our area. On receiving this information from Canton, a junior civil aviation official jumped the gun and told Canton that we were cancelling our exercise.
4.
This left us with a problem. Had the Chinese deliberately tried to prevent us carrying out the exercise? If so, why? Were they trying to demonstrate that they considered the area in question to be their air space? There were no political indicators to suggest that the Chinese might be anxious to "box in" Hong Kong's air space indeed quite the contrary. Consequently we concluded that the announcement of their training exercise in a similar
/contd.
CONFIDENTIAL
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