Sir J Coles o/r
CONFIDENTIAL
RECE
20 JAM 1993
FROM:
PF Ricketts i
Hong Kong Department
DATE:
28 January 1993
CC:
PS/Goodlad
Mr Davies, FED
fle
HONG KONG:
1.
AMBASSADOR MA
The Secretary of State had back-to-back sessions on 27 January with a group of Liberal legislators led by Emily Lau, and Lords Prior and Young. I attach the telegrams. two meetings provided (fortuitously) a neat balance of differing view points.
The
2. As you will see, Lords Prior and Young came to express concern about threats to their business in China arising from our dispute over Hong Kong. Lord Young spoke as
he had done to you a week ago. Both had been targets of arm-twisting by Ambassador Ma.
3
The Secretary of State said to me afterwards that he would like Ambassador Ma called in and told that Ministers had noted his arm-twisting in the business community, considered that this went beyond what was reasonable and that it stood in contrast to the line taken with the Prime Minister by Vice-Premier Zhu Rongji about Sino-British trade. The Secretary of State thought that this might be done at senior official level. Would you be willing to ask
Ambassador Ma to call next week? If so, I will concoct some points to make in conjunction with FED.
Ji Lickelts
PF Ricketts
CONFIDENTIAL