CONFIDENTIAL
BRITISH EMBASSY
PEKING
181/548/1
RC Fursland Esq Far Eastern Dept FCC
*
3 August 1979
#KK 184/0
82%y Enter a PA
10/8
HONG KONG AND THE AIR SERVICES AGREEMENT
1.
You may be interested to have on record a separate account of the strictly political issues involving Hong Kong that arose during the negotiations and how they were resolved. have some bearing on future agreements.
2.
This may
As you know, before the talks started, the Chinese insisted that they were prepared only to discuss questions related to the trunk route, and argued that services between Hong Kong and China should be dealt with separately, in talks between CAAC representatives in Guangzhou and the Dept of Civil Aviation in Hong Kong (the latter being authorised, if necessary, by the Dept. of Trade). It was Lu Ruilin, however, who in fact brought the regional services into the talks by suggesting that only with a package in the region favourable to CAAC could they contemplate including Hong Kong as a point on the trunk route for BA (although they had accepted this in 1973).
3.
Having agreed on a package, the Chinese insisted not only that there should be no mention of Hong Kong in the Agreement, even as a point on the trunk route, but that there should be two separate Confidential Memoranda of Understanding one providing for the inclusion of Hong Kong on the trunk route for BA, and the other providing for regional services. They were prepared to see the trunk route CMU tied to the Agreement by its preamble, but the regional routes CMU had to appear to be a completely independent document, with references to the Agreement covered by a separate paragraph of definition.
CONFIDENTIAL
14.