THE COURSE OF THE NEGOTIATIONS
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9.
The Prime Minister's visit was followed by the first phase of
negotiations conducted by H M Ambassador, Peking and the Chinese
Foreign Ministry. These consisted of exchanges between the two
sides on the basis on which the negotiations would be conducted, and
on the agenda. On 1 July 1983 it was announced that the second
phase of the talks would begin in Peking on 12 July. The pattern of
negotiation in the second phase, which was continued until the end
of the negotiations, was for formal rounds of talks to be held at
intervals of between two and four weeks between HM Ambassador in
Peking and a vice-Minister at the Chinese Foreign Ministry,
supplemented as necessary by informal contacts between the two
delegations. The Governor of Hong Kong took part in every round of
formal talks as a member of the British delegation.
10.
In the course of the negotiations the British side put forward a number of background and working papers. The background papers explained the systems which prevail in Hong Kong and the importance
for these systems of the British administrative role and link.
Following discussion of these papers, it became clear that in the
Chinese view sovereignty and the right of administration over Hong
Kong were inseparable, and that no continuation of British
administration after 1997 would be acceptable to China. The British
proposed that the two sides exptions exco discuss side therefore offered to the Chinese side to discuss/what effective measures other than continued British administration might be
devised to maintain the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong and Zo
explore further the Chinese ideas which had at that stage been
China and Britain explained to us, in order to see whether we
we could
could construct on this
basis arrangements which would ensure lasting stability and
prosperity for Hong Kong. The Chinese were told that if this
process was successful, the British Government would recommend
Parliament a bilateral agreement enshrining the arrangements.
Following this, the British side presented to the Chinese a series of working papers which took as the basis for discussion China's
them
to
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