30 July 1991
Dear Stephen,
CONFIDENTIAL
HKD 8/26/13
-70CT.991
PRICE
PA
7
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
London SWIA 2AH
Prime Minister's Visit to China and Hong Kong
I wrote to you on 29 July giving the
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Foreign Secretary's advice on the itinerary and programme for the Prime Minister's visit to China. You may also like recommendations on the handling of the visit, including objectives, subjects for discussions with the Chinese, and tactics.
This will be the first visit by a British Prime Minister to China since that of Mrs Thatcher in December 1984 for the signature of the Joint Declaration on Hong Kong. Following that agreement our relations entered their warmest phase, with the State visit to China by The Queen in 1986 marking a high point. The then Chinese Premier, Zhao Ziyang (later Party General Secretary) visited Britain the same year. Progress came to a halt in June 1989, with the suspension of many areas of our dealings with China following the Tiananmen events.
Mr Kaifu will visit Peking shortly before the Prime Minister, who will be the first EC head of Government to visit China since 1989, : Mr Andreotti is likely to visit China later in September. EC partners have recognised the special needs we (and Portugal) have for rebuilding links with China. Human rights concerns mean that most of them do not favour too rapid a development of relations. Similar concerns hold back US/China relations.
Objectives of the Visit
(a)
Our objectives are:-
To sign the MOU, to secure a resounding Chinese endorsement of the Airport Project, and to demonstrate that Britain and China are working together to bring about a stable and prosperous future for Hong Kong;
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/(b)
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