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I
Most weapons used in Hong Kong came through, or from China. also raised our specific concern on lax control over ammunition at public firing ranges in Guangdong.
[Comment: I visited the NORINCO firing range in Peking on
June 3 and was allowed, quite legally but for a price, to fire live rounds from an AK47 and other weapons. If you wished, you
could also use mortars, anti-tank rounds, heavy machine guns etc. I was accompanied at all times by a minder.
of what was on offer, security was not tight.]
14.
But in view
We went over the ground on VMs again. Wang's emphasis was on enforcement difficulties, China had intercepted more
than 150 boats last year, but he acknowledged many got through. Only the abandonment of first asylum would solve the fundamental problem I countered on standard lines.
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15.
Wang and He also raised some detailed immigration related points which I will pass to D of Imm separately.
HKMAO, MFA
16.
Mr. Brooking hosted a dinner for me with a number of younger officials from the HKMAO. Some of these had previosuly been posted to Hong Kong as staff members of the Chinese JLG Office, and I had known three of them in their previous
incarnations. The dinner was essentially a social occasion, but I was struck by how openly they all expressed their regret at leaving Hong Kong, and their discontent at being posted to Peking. It was not unlike having dinner with a group of FCO employees recently posted back to London, except that they were wholly unwilling to discuss anything of substance.
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