6.
SECRET
THIS IS A COPY
THE ORIGINAL HAS BEEN CLOSED FOR
40 YEARS UNDER FOI EXEMPTION No.....27()..........
7.
Although the present provisional timetable would achieve this order of visits, there are serious difficulties about it:
(a)
(b)
8.
President Reagan plans to visit China in Easter week, probably arriving on 25 April. It is the Ambassador's strong view that in the run-up to that visit, the Chinese leadership will be fully preoccupied and that it would be a bad time to tackle them on Hong Kong.
There would be major difficulties about a gap of four days between visits to Peking and Hong Kong while the Secretary of State went to Japan and Korea. Curiosity in Hong Kong would be at a high pitch. The Secretary of State would be under pressure by the press to make revelations in the other two capitals. There could be strong criticism in the territory. It would not be feasible to put the visits to Peking and Hong Kong at the end of the Far East tour. If enough time were allowed for substantive talks in Peking and for a sufficiently long visit to Hong Kong not to cause offence, the programme would overrun into unbreakable engagements here, eg the Anglo-German summit. Moreover, to leave discussions on the future of Hong Kong until the very end of April would probably be too late for strategic purposes. 9. We therefore need to consider bringing the visits to Peking and Hong Kong forward, either as a separate sortie to the Far East and returning to London or joined onto the Far East tour, with the Secretary of State spending Easter in the region.
10.
(a)
The constraints are:
The Chinese Foreign Minister will be visiting Europe (though not Britain) in the first ten days of April.
SECRET
/(b)