SECRET
1
Following this, the British side presented to the Chinese a series of working papers which took as the basis for discussion China's proposals for Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region and examined their implications. In response to these papers the Chinese side further elaborated their ideas on the policies which the Chinese Government were proposing to pursue in Hong Kong after 1997.
11. In April 1984 the two
two sides completed initial discussion of the working papers. There were a number of outstanding unresolved points, but it was by then clear that an acceptable basis for an agreement might be possible. Both sides tabled draft agreements At the invitation of the Chinese Government the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary visited Peking from 15 to 18 April.
During his meetings with Chinese leaders the two sides reviewed the course of the talks on the future of Hong Kong, and further progress was made. In Hong Kong on 20 April Sir Geoffrey Howe made a statement on the Government's approach to the negotiations. He said that it would not be realistic to think of an agreement that provided for continued British administration in Hong Kong after 1997: for that reason the Government had been examining with the Chinese Government how it might be possible to arrive at arrangements that would secure for Hong Kong, after 1997, a high degree of autonomy under Chinese sovereignty, and that would preserve the way of life in Hong Kong, together with the essentials of the present systems. He made it clear that the Government were working for a
were working for a framework of arrangements that would provide for the maintenance of Hong Kong's flourishing and dynamic society, and an agreement in which arrangements would be formally set out.
12.
such
After Sir Geoffrey Howe's visit in April negotiations continued. A working group was established in June 1984 to meet full-time in Peking and consider documents tabled by both sides. I n July 1984 the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary again visited Peking. The visit was devoted almost entirely to the future of Hong Kong. Sir Geoffrey Howe announced in Hong Kong on 1 August that very substantial progress had been made towards agreement on the form and content of documents which would set out arrangements for Hong Kong's future with clarity and precision, in legally binding
SECRET