CON FIDENTIAL
to assume the obligations of membership to acceed to this Convention". Legally, it would perhaps be better to argue for some intermediary form of association rather than full
Although the Convention does not provide
membership.
explicitely for such a step, a precedent rests with
Yugoslavia.
Whilst the legal problems would probably not prove too
difficult, the political problems would be less easy to
The chief hurdle would be the apprehension of
overcome.
Some would
OECD members about Chinese reactions. undoubtedly argue that Peking would construe any attempt to enrol Hong Kong as an unfriendly act, largely for fear of creating a precedent for Taiwan, and result in China raising problems over the OECD/DAE dialogue.
The
Secretary-General of OECD has been at pains to avoid offending the Chinese over the dialogue with the DAE's and he and a number of members would be loath to jeopardize the
Members would also be likely to progress so far achieved.
raise political objections in that they saw no reason why after 1997 a part of China should be entitled to eavesdrop
There could also be on the inter-governmental discussions.
an objection in the resistance to the expansion of numbers
in the OECD.
The Hong Kong Government wish pursue low profile contact with the OECD Secretariat to discuss how best to forge
future links. As a first step, officials from Hong Kong's
Brussels office recently called on H M Permanent
SG2 ACY
CON FIDENTIAL