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Entir
652
MKK040/5
REJEIVED DIALGIE. IN
FUTURE OF HONG KONG: SUMMARY RECORD OF INFORMAL
DISCUSSION WITH SENIOR AMERICAN OFFICIALS IN
WASHINGTON ON 1 DECEMBER 1983
DEC 1983
1.
tica T.
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Hong Kong was discussed informally over dinner at the
Minister's house on 1 December. Those present on the American
side were Mr Bill Brown (Deputy Assistant Secretary, State
Department), Mr Don Gregg (Adviser to Vice President Bush),
Mr Jim Kelly (Deputy Assistant Secretary, Department of Defense),
Mr Nat Bellocchi (Deputy Assistant Secretary, State Department
Bureau of Intelligence and Research) and Mr Jim Cochrane (Deputy
Director of East Asian Affairs, CIA).
2. Mr Donald mentioned that the Chinese referred sometimes to
the ''foreign policy struggle'' with Britain over Hong Kong. If
one looked at the situation entirely through Chinese eyes, their
offer that they were prepared to discuss with us how the future of Hong Kong should be managed with a high degree of autonomy and
no change to the systems, subject to prior acceptance of the Chinese premise on sovereignty and the right of administration,
seemed generous.
It did not necessarily look the same to the Hong Kong people. He suggested that the Chinese might have been misled by the attitude which Britain had adopted over a decade or so before the present negotiations started. Beginning with the removal of Hong Kong from the list of dependent territories at the United Nations in 1972, up to Mrs Thatcher's visit to Peking, the Chinese may have thought that they could secure British cooperation for a satisfactory solution to the problem of the future and that we might not make difficulty over the issue of sovereignty. This was one possible explanation for the Chinese reaction to the Prime Ministers public affirmation of the validity of the Treaties when she passed through Hong Kong in 1982. The Chinese attitude towards sovereignty and the right of administration after 1997 had not changed since Deng's meeting with Mrs Thatcher. possible that what they had in mind was public acknowledgement by Britain that we would cease to run Hong Kong as a British colony
It was
SECRET
/after