March 1993
CONFIDENTIAL
Roderic Lyne Esq CMG
10 Downing St
THIS IS A COPY THE ORIGINAL HAS BEEN CLOSED UNDER
FOI EXEMPTION NO. 27 (1)
HONG KONG
My letter of 12 March reported that the Chinese side
had refused to agree acceptable terms for talks and that the
Governor had decided to publish his electoral legislation.
As predicted, Premier Li Peng's speech to the National People's Congress (NPC) on 14 March was sharply critical of
the Governor, accusing him of "perfidy" and of actions
"designed to create disorder". In public statements, Chinese
spokesmen appeared to rule out talks and said that they would
step up preparations for a new legislature as well as a new
Government in 1997. But the tone of these remarks was less
hostile than might have been expected. In recent days, Chinese spokesmen have moderated their line slightly, suggesting that introduction of the legislation into the Legislative Council would be the step which made talks impossible.
privately, using a Hong Kong businessman well connected in
Peking, Mr Edmond Lau. Lau's reports indicate that the
Chinese leadership did not take a decision that the talks
about talks should fail: the outcome was the result of
confusion rather than calculation on the Chinese side. This
suggests that there is still some possibility of resuming discussions, probably after the NPC meeting has finished.
China's National People's Congress
(China's
let,lyne22/3 JM CONDEV
CONFIDENTIAL