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FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE ENQUIRY ON HONG KONG: EVIDENCE SESSION

WITH MR MAUDE, 13 DECEMBER 1989

LIKELY THRUST OF QUESTIONING

Committee's Objectives

1. To follow up the Government's reply to their Report, a reply which the Committee regard as a very interim one.

2. To clarify our proposals on financial provisions for Vietnamese boat people

3. To avoid getting bogged down in dicussion on boat people, at the expense of other Hong Kong issues

General opening question

What is the expected timing on decisions on:

(a)

Constitutional development

(b) Nationality

(c) Vietnamese boat people?

Government's General Approach on Hong Kong post Tiananmen

Hong Kong needs firm guarantees about its future, both within the Basic Law and through developments within the territory between

now and 1997 (eg democratisation). What is the Government's

strategy for providing these guarantees, against the background of recent events in China and the hardening of the Chinese attitude?

Do we kow-tow, going as slow as the Chinese want; or press ahead, if necessary in defiance of the wishes of the Chinese?

Joint Liaison Group

Were the Chinese prepared to discuss the Basic Law in last

week's JLG? What other matters were covered?

PUPAAC

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