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C T Wood Esq
Hong Kong Dept
FCO
BRITISH EMBASSY
Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 77 5300 Bonn 1
Telex 88 68 87 Telephone (0228) 23 40 61
WIVES.
© Mr Paul to see
Your reference
Our reference
H014/3 Date
R/28
PA
N
6 May 1988
I a Mr roolman HCB 0281
2
Dear Mr Wood, 3 Enter rps,
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HONG KONG BRIEFING
1.
Please refer to your letter HKCO31/12 to Chancery of 6 April.
2. I asked the Head of the Far Eastern Department in the Auswärtiges Amt, Scheel, for his reactions to our briefing exercise on the meetings of the Joint Liaison Group. Scheel said he was grateful to be kept in the picture and found the reports useful and interesting. He found the information personally very interesting. When pressed about further areas on which he would welcome background briefing he floundered somewhat and said that the culture of Hong Kong was an area in which he would like to know more. He praised with the min! the quality of the reporting provided by the FRG Consul-General in
Hong Kong, Dr Bracklo, who until recently was Minister in London. He was an old China hand and reported well.
12 really Thay
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3.
It is clear that Hong Kong is of principal interest to the FRG because of the commercial opportunities offered. Scheel commented that three-way joint ventures between the FRG, China and Hong Kong had proved easier than pure FRG/China joint ventures. He emphasised the importance of Hong Kong in the FRG's trade statistics, which was quite out of proportion with its size and wider political importance. One indication of this was the number of Germans living in Hong Kong
(2,500) compared to in Tokyo (3,000).
4.
We went on to discuss the forthcoming visit of the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir David Wilson to the FRG in October. There is a degree of uncertainty in the Auswärtiges Amt about the level at which Sir David should be received. It is not out of the question that Genscher would agree to receive him and we would certainly hope that State Minister Schäfer would be prepared, if not. Scheel asked, however, whether we knew of other EC Foreign Ministers visiting Hong Kong, either in the private or official capacity or whether there were any other precedents which could be useful in deciding the protocol level of this visit. We have encouraged Mr Webb-Johnson at the Hong Kong
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