SECRET
мка
19
M. William
пиэти разая
1981
RECORD OF SIR P CRADOCK'S CALL ON MR RIDLEY ON 27 AUGUST 1981
Present:
Fas
И
7/9
Mr Nicholas Ridley MP
Sir P Cradock, HM Ambassador,
Peking
Mr R McLaren, FED
Mr H McQuade, HKGD
Mr K Temple
HKK 040/
FUTURE OF HONG KONG
1.
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO.
10 SEP 1981
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
PA
The Minister wished to hav a sener subject. A short background minute of 26 to him in advance of the meeting.
2.
(i)
REGISTRY
Action Taken
Mas
10.9
chat to get the feel of the August had been submitted
The following points were made in discussion:
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
(viii)
the Chinese were fully aware of our views. We had made known our concerns to them on various occasions, more recently during the Secretary of State's visit to China in April. Our difficulty was in getting them to act. The Chinese did not look at the problem from a legalistic viewpoint as we did.
we had not had a worthwhile reaction since the 'hearts at
assurance by Vice-Chairman Deng in 1979, since repeated.
if we kept on at them we ran the risk of irritating them. Deng had been very cautious about the future of Hong Kong during the Secretary of State's visit; it was clear that he did not wish to pressed on it.
the Chinese seemed to think that we are exaggerating the fear of a slide in confidence to press them into an extension.
once confidence began to slide it would be hard to halt. Our difficulty and the Governor's was in predicting the timing.
even if confidence slid we could not rule out the possibility that the Chinese would still not act, for their own internal/ external political reasons.
nor could we rule out the possibility that at any stage they might issue a diktat over Hong Kong's future.
the Chinese also seemed to consider that Hong Kong could function without a British presence. We did not see how it could on present lines, for various economic and other reasons; in particular British Dependent Territory status was a major confidence factor for investors.
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