PLEA
TG A
TOH KK ON T
Mr Orr
FED
011
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
06 NO 1986
REGISTRY
PA
Action Taken
DESK OFFICER INDEX
CONFIDENTIAL
451
Reference..
HKK 011/1
HONG KONG
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT AND BASIC LAW: DIALOGUE WITH
"CONVERGENCE"
THE CHINESE ON
1.
As you will be aware, since May this year (when the Secretary of State met Wu Xueqian in Brussels on 23 May and handed him several detailed papers) we have been engaged in a high level dialogue with the Chinese on the future development of Hong Kong's political system. The long term aim is to ensure that the development of Hong Kong's system up to 1997 and the post 1997 system now being designed by the Chinese in the drafting of the Basic Law "converge" (i.e. are compatible). The short term aim is to ensure that the Chinese understand our commitment and intentions in the 1987 review of representative government in Hong Kong; that they do not seek to limit its range of options; and in the final event that they do not reject whatever further measures of reform arise from it.
2.
As part of this dialogue the Secretary of State handed over a second set of papers to Wu during the State Visit. Wu welcomed them as a basis for further dialogue. We now need to identify further opportunities for such dialogue. Those already in view are:
(a) the margins of JLG V (25-23 in Peking;
November) when Dr Wilson will be
ŵe
(b) the Governor's visit to Peking in early December (1-5 C) to open the TDC office there.
3.
We need therefore to mark down further possibilities for early 1987 particularly as the Hong Kong Government Area Paper on the Review will be published in May, and the Basic Law drafting process will if anything gather momentum next year. The meetings should be between either FCO Ministers and their Chinese counterparts, or very senior officials dealing directly with Hong Kong matters (i.e. effectively Dr Wilson). To lower the public profile of the dialogue as far as possible, it is helpful if meetings can occur in the margine of other events (e.g. State Visits or UNGA), and third country locations are an obvious boon, since they are less likely to excite speculation in Hong Kong (e.g. Brussels).
4. I shall be grateful for FED's early thoughts on whether any such opportunities (e.g. inward Chinese Ministerial visits to the United Kingdom, Western Europe, or international fora elsewhere; or outward FCO Ministerial visits to the Far East) exist, or could be
engineered.
20 October 1986
CONFIDENTIAL
E Leeks
Hong Kong Department WH 312 4439