DRAFT LETTER FROM PRIME MINISTER TO:
Mr C H Tung
Associated Maritime Company (London) Ltd
Metro House
58 St James Street
London
Thank you for your letter of 14 March. I very much enjoyed meeting you at our recent lunch: Hong Kong is of
great importance to the Government and I always welcome
the opportunity to meet its leading figures.
In your letter of 14 March you raise the question of
China's MFN status in the US and the adverse impact which withdrawal of that status would have on Hong Kong. I
entirely take your point and agree that the effect on
Hong Kong, both direct and indirect, would be severe and
long lasting.
As you may know, when this issue came up in 1990 we
lobbied hard on Hong Kong's behalf. When announcing that
he was renewing China's MFN status, the President said that Hong Kong had weighed on his mind.
As a
We will play an active part again this year.
first step, when I saw President Bush in Bermuda on
13 March I told him squarely that withdrawal of MFN
status would do grave damage to Hong Kong. Once again he showed himself sympathetic to Hong Kong's concerns, but
we all need to consider how we can most effectively get
the point across to members of Congress.