-2-
(d)
(e)
(E)
Mr. Hayden asked if there was any danger of the Chinese becoming obtrusive and
authoritarian in their dealings with Hong Kong and therefore compromising its ability to remain free and open. The Governor said that the Chinese inclination was always to
intervene.
Sometimes local officials threw
their weight around. There was also a continuing problem of lack of understanding of Hong Kong in Peking. But over the past few months the Chinese had shown themselves to be considerably more careful and sensitive in their public actions and had often responded to our private advice. He added that the draft Basic Law was quite encouraging on the whole although there were a few problem areas. The Chinese had spent a considerable amount of time consulting people in Hong Kong;
Mr. Hayden said that Hong Kong was becoming an increasingly international city. It was of growing importance to Australia, e.g. in terms of trade and banking. He said that when he had last visited the territory there had been some worry about investment. He wondered what the present situation was. The Governor said that this had improved considerably. Retained imports of capital goods had been at a historic high in 1987. There was also considerable overseas interest in major projects such as the second harbour tunnel, Tate's Cairn tunnel and Terminal 7;
The Governor said that Hong Kong was grateful to the Australian Government for its continuing help in taking refugees from Hong Kong. This remained a considerable political problem for us. Mr. Hayden said that the immigration programme presented problems for the Australian Government. Their offtake of Vietnamese refugees was the biggest in the world in proportion to population. The Government was concerned about possible social tensions and about the small element of criminals that such a large inflow inevitably contained. It was also a cause for concern that the family reunion element now took up such a high proportion of emigration. As Australia had a very low birthrate it was very dependent on immigration and needed to ensure that a sufficient proportion of immigrants were of working age.
/...