CODE 18-77
415
CONFIDENTIAL
Mr Morris HKGD (K 221) Or.
да
THE FUTURE OF HONG KONG
1.
Reference
Mr. Sarik
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Among the speakers at the Wilton Park Conference which I attended last week was Dick Wilson, the former editor of the China Quarterly, who spoke on the future of Hong Kong and Taiwan. He was well informed as far as publicly available information on the subject goes and gave a pretty balanced talk while being pessimistic on the prospects if, as he expected, the Chinese should in the event, despite their references to autonomy, assume administrative control. He thought it unlikely that international agreement would be forthcoming to extend Hong Kong's trade quotas if it should become a special administrative region of China.
2. After the talk he told me that he had no plans at present to visit China, having recently been refused a visa for a visit which he had proposed. He expected to spend much of this year in Japan in connection with a book which he is writing on that country. I said that if he should nevertheless be able to resurrect his plan to visit China, I should be interested if he could let me know.
3. As part of the programme of the Conference, the partici- pants paid a visit to SOAS to hear a presentation by Professor Schram (on the present political situation in China) and Dr Cyril Lin (the Chinese economy) which was also attended by the Chinese Chargé d'Affaires and two members of theEmbassy. There was some conversation afterwards about Hong Kong, which was generally unremarkable, but it is perhaps worth noting that Miss Suncommented that "the ball is in Britain's court" and that "in any case it is necessary as a first step that China's sovereignty should be recognised". Cyril Lin who also took part in this conversation appears to have sensible views on Hong Kong.
*
a junior member of the embassy
Mafelken
K C Walker
Far Eastern Section Research Department G 59/4
233-3473
26 April 1983
CC:
Mr Thomson FED (K 258)
CONFIDENTIAL
HIKK040/1
RECEIVED IN REDO TY NO. 51
- 6 MAY 1983
DESK OFFICE.
INDEX
PA
REGISTRY Action Taken
CHILLS