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consider other channels. Non official intermediaries might include
trusted Hong Kong Chinese businessmen or politicians; or others
(British or otherwise) who carried weight in China. Such
intermediaries would need to be carefully selected and briefed.
Decisions would obviously need to be taken in the light of the
specific circumstances.
(B) INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE ON CHINA
4.
An alternative means of influencing China would be to mobilise
international opinion, possibly by pressing for some form of
sanctions (or the threat of sanctions) against China.
This approach
would need to be adopted as a last resort, when the prospects of
diplomatic action had been exhausted. In the short term, moreover,
international pressure of this kind would be likely to be
counterproductive
-
serving only to entrench hard line Chinese
attitudes. But domestic opinion in this country, and pressure from
Hong Kong itself, might well oblige us to explore such possibilities
if all other steps had failed. The obvious forum in which to
mobilise international action would be the United Nations, though
Chinese Permanent Membership of the Security Council might limit the
possibilities. We would need to embark upon intensive lobbying of
our closest allies, particularly the United States, Canada and
Australia, as well as our European partners.
(c) INTERNATIONAL SAFETY NET
We
5. If a mass exodus from Hong Kong were to materialise we would
need to press for arrangement for the international community to
share the task of providing temporary refuge (and eventually permanent homes) for those who were fleeing from the territory.
have already made it clear both in international fora and in
bilateral contacts, that if the worst came to the worst, we would
expect other countries to play their part in helping us to cope with
the problem. An approach by us would therefore come as no surprise
to the Governments concerned. In the first instance, bilateral
approaches at a very high level would probably be the most productive. But in order to secure substantial pledges from other Governments, it might be necessary to call an informal international
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