ME 3ADO
CONFIDENTIAL
BACKGROUND
5.
the
During President Eanes' visit to China in May,
Portuguese and Chinese Governments announced that they
would begin negotiations on the question of Macau in the
near future. The start of negotiations is now likely to
be early next year, after the Portuguese Presidential
elections.
6.
have
The outcome of the negotiations could
implications for Hong Kong. It will be important that
the terms of any agreement should not be substantially
better ог worse than those of the
the Joint Declaration. The
Chinese have indicated to us their concern that the
Portuguese do not understand the sensitivity of the
subject. A particular problem lies in the lack of a strong local administration in Macau.
close touch with the Portuguese.
We are keeping
in
7.
Shortly before the conclusion
of Portugal's
EC
accession negotiations, Hong Kong asked us to try to
prevent Portuguese residents of Macau from enjoying
better rights of entry
to the EC than Hong Kong BDTCs.
with the Portuguese who made a
We
this pursued declaration to the EC explaining their policy on
issuing
that
to Macau Portuguese passports
residents, but
said
their nationality law did not allow them to distinguish
between Portuguese nationals from Macau and other Portuguese nationals. We believe that there are about 80,000 Macanese entitled to Portuguese passports. After year transitional period and unless the Portuguese Government adopt restrictive measures in the interim, Portuguese from Macau will therefore enjoy full EC access rights, unlike Hong Kong BDTCs.
a
7
8.
Our
the Portuguese received
unfavourable publicity in a September
to approaches
and Review
is sue
the HKG, fearing
of the Far
that our
Eastern Economic
CONFIDENTIAL