CONFIDENTIAL
VISIT OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN
AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS TO CHINA
MAY 1976
BRIEF NO 10
CHINESE REPRESENTATION IN HONG KONG
Line to Take (Defensive)
This
1.. The Secretary of State will not wish to raise this subject himself and if the Chinese raise it the Secretary of State might say that our view has not changed from that set out in the aide mémoire handed to the Chinese Foreign Minister Chi P'eng-fei in London in 1973 by Sir Alec Douglas-Home (text attached). had been most carefully worded and continues to represent our position. We adhere to the view that the time is not ripe for any forward move, although any suggestions by the Chinese will of course be carefully studied.
2. If pressed the Secretary of State could elaborate by
saying
(a) Satisfactory channels for discussion of matters of mutual
interest already exist and
(b) we need always to bear in mind the reactions to the
proposal in Hong Kong.
Background
3. There is a long history to this problem. The Chinese have raised the matter intermittently since Hong Kong was acquired by Britain and in 1945 a Chinese liaison officer was appointed to Hong Kong pending the appointment, of a consul. The Nationalists therefore had a representative in Hong Kong for a few years in the period before the Communist victory in the mainland in 1949. He gave the Government of Hong Kong a great deal of trouble.
4. The present Chinese Government proposed in 1956 that a representative of their Ministry of Foreign Affairs should be established in Hong Kong and they have raised the issue from time to time since then. When Sir Alec Douglas-Home visited Peking in 1972 he undertook to think the matter over and during the visit of the then Foreign Minister Chi P'eng-fei to this country
CONFIDENTIAL
/in 1973
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