SECRET - COVERING TOP SECRET
Mr Williamson 21.6
Mr Morrice
Mr Clift
Reference
HKK 040/1
неконо
RECEIVED 370
11 JUN 1980
DESK OFFICER
33
Ви
FUTURE OF HONG KONG
1.
Flag A
Flag B
Flag C
Flag D
to ver mily Senior MFA iftriccini
for
CODE 18-77
SS 8/78
Mr Clift's minute of the issues at (b),
INDEX
PA
WTRY
to AW 1911
IX.
of 16 May. It was suggested I look at some (c) and (d).
Chinese Official Representation in Hong Kong
2. The draft Research Memorandum gives a summary of the various Chinese requests for official representation in Hong Kong. I have now called up the files covering the period when this subject was last considered in detail; around the time of Ji Pengfei's (Chi P'eng-fei, Chinese Foreign Minister) visit to London in June 1973. At a meeting between Ji and the Secretary of State (Sir Alec Douglas-Home) on 7 June (please see record of meeting) an "aide- memoire" was handed to Ji explaining that "the time was not yet ripe" for official representation in Hong Kong. This answer was subsequently referred to in later exchanges on the subject.
3.
Although the Chinese have seemed largely content to shelve the matter since June 1973 (with the exceptions noted in my draft Memorandum), the request was considered carefully. The detailed arguments offered by HMA Peking and the Governor of Hong Kong for and against that request are drawn together in a submission of 15 November 1973 to the Secretary of State (Top Secret Annex FEH 3/301/1). A background paper was also prepared which identified six possible courses of action (paragraphs 5 and 6):
Option (a) describes the line that we have in fact taken. Since 1973 the Governor of Hong Kong has worked steadily, and with considerable success, to build up the status of NCNA in a "fully discernible way". Reference is made to the possibility of the Chinese altering the status of NCNA representation by appointing an MFA official as its local director. This has not yet happened. However, the appointment has gradually become a more senior one. Wang Kuang, the current Director, for example, formerly held a rank roughly equivalent to that of Vice-Minister as head of the State Publications Administrative Bureau under the State Council. The Chinese request for a visa-issuing office is also mentioned. The "Hong Kong visa-issuing office of the MFA of the PRC" has now been agreed and will be manned from mid-June.
Option (b): The arguments against this option are compelling, not
least the Chinese insistence that it would be unacceptable to them.
Option (c): For the reasons given here we seen never to have
opted for the flat, once and for all refusal.
Option (d): Such delaying tactics have not been necessary, partly
because the Chinese have not pressed the issue but more especially because of the progress that has been made along the lines of (a) above. As the Governor told the Chinese in March 1979 the present arrangement with NCNA was working so well that there was little need for the switch to formal representation.
SECRET
/Option (e)
COVERING TOP SECRET