A
CONFIDENTIAL
Background
Reference A: Message to Secretary of State from
Mr Watanabe of 16 January.
B: Message to Secretary of State from Mr Watanabe
of 18 December.
B
X
X
1. Mr Watanabe's message includes a report on exchanges with the Chinese about Hong Kong. Japan is uniquely placed
to influence China. Mr Kaifu and Mr Nakayame lobbied
various Chinese Ministers last summer in favour of an early
airport agreement and warned that negative Chinese
statements could damage international business confidence.
2.
Mr Nakayama took a helpful line on Hong Kong's
democratisation during a visit to Japan in October by
Zhou Nan, Director, NCNA in Hong Kong, but in general the Japanese had preferred to emphaise the need to preserve Hong Kong's economic freedoms. Mr Watanabe's message of
18 December to the Secretary of State invited us to suggest
lines to take for his visit to China. We provided one on
democracy in Hong Kong, which his report shows he made use
of.
3. China has not previously objected to such lobbying by Japan but remains paranoid about the "internationalisation" of Hong Kong, so their use of this word in the exchange with
Watanabe might be a warning shot across the bows. Chinese
neuralgia about democracy means that future lobbying will
need to be sensitively handled, but the Japanese are best placed to do this. We should encourage them to continue.
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