retention of MFN for China).
Mr Sainty unfortunately was
not briefed to speak on this point.
4. Mr Baker had three requests in connection with the meeting of the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights in Geneva from 5 30 August. They wanted the UK delegation to enquire about China's report to the Committee on Torture, whether China was willing to accede to the two. international covenants on human rights, particularly the covenant on civil and political rights and to express concern about the condition of Wang Juntao, who was now threatening to go on hunger strike which would almost certainly kill him. Mr Walwyn pointed out that it was for the NGOS to deal with these issues in the Sub-Commission. He explained that the international covenants had been raised with the Chinese and it was clear that there were splits in the Chinese leadership over this issue.
5. We moved on to discuss the Prime Minister's forthcoming visit to China. The China Support Group had various suggestions for issues which should be raised by the Prime Minister. These included:
i)
ii)
the general question of prisoners of conscience;
conditions in Chinese prisons;
iii) the possibility of sending an independent
delegation of human rights experts;
iv
access for independent NGOS (such as the Red Cross) to Chinese prisons;
v)
1 J
foreign observers to be allowed to attend trials.
I assured the Group that human rights would be on the agenda, as they had been during the Secretary of State's visit. This was a regular feature of our interaction with
I the Chinese. We were considering possible ways forward. asked the Group how they assessed the value of independent delegations. They shared some of our reservations, commenting/it depended upon how independent the delegations were allowed to be, and whether they could take their own interpreters. They nevertheless considered that such visits did highlight the concern in the West over human rights in China and that even the misleading of delegations, as had been attempted with US Congressmen in Tibet, revealed something about the situation.
6. The discussion moved on to issues relating to Hong Kong. This included concern about the screening out of Chinese illegals, the refusal of visas to delegates of the proposed student conference and the loud-hailer case. Wang Si-yuan, in talking about Hong Kong, said that from his experience in China, outside influence always did have an effect on the Chinese Government. Mr Baker asked me whether I was content for him to discuss with other