CONFIDENTIAL
United Kingdom Mission 37-39 rue de Vermont 1211 Geneva 20
Telex 22956
Telegrams Prodrome Geneva
Telephone 34 38 00 33 23 85
R D Clift Esq
Hong Kong Department
Foreign & Commonwealth Office LONDON SW1
My Dear Lick,
STATUS OF HONG KONG
12 K251
Copy FED
Enlin
Your reference
Our reference
Date
ملة
2013/7
9 July 1981
NECISKI MA. 13 JUL 1981
OFFICER
PA
REGISTR
RÁCTICA
fan. Fly
1. I report for the record that the Americans contrived to describe Hong Kong as a state in Mrs Kirkpatrick's speech in Plenary to the Second Regular Session of ECOSOC. The sentence in question read as follows:-
"The economic history of the Western democracies, Japan, and more recently, of such non-Western states as Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan proves wealth is not conferred on its possessors; wealth is created by innovation and experiment, by human intellect and effort".
We
68
The Chinese reacted immediately, but fortunately in private. also explained to the Americans the difficulties to which the description of Hong Kong could lead. The Americans resolved the difficulty by a private apology to the Chinese and an assurance that for "states" they had meant "economies" and that this would appear in their own record of what had been said. It also so appears in the ECOSOC summary record. Happily, this seems to have been sufficient for the Chinese.
In eve
-
се
UKMis New York
I W Mackley Esq, UND
чт
JD BOYD
Chancery, Washington, Peking
(PV. Not to mention
Tainiom..!)
Assistant Political Adviser, Hong Kong
CONFIDENTIAL