CONFIDENTIAL
CONFIDENTIAL
С вы
Whm
1015 M Pellew NAS
Mr im, FED
77
(
- N$ x i-
Girticles
GOVERNOR'S CALL ON MR. ROBERT RUBIN, NATIONAL ECONOMIC ADVISER ON MAY 5 IN WASHINGTON, DC
Present: Mr. Rubin
2 aides
Governor Mr. Wiggham Mr. Dinham
7 Mr
Mr Whitne
MS B-
These
Ꭵ . The Governor said he was glad to have had the opportunity be able to explain the Hong Kong dimension of the MFN issue at a time when policy was being pieced together in Washington. A good long-term relationship between China and the US was of critical importance Lo Hong Kong's future prosperity and stability. two countries were Hong Kong's main trading partners. Hong Kong's economy had become increasingly intertwined with that of southern
China. It represented 19% of China's GNP. The economic links with
the US were also very strong with 26,000 Americans and 900 US firms based in Hong Kong.
2.
The Governor said that his public pitch on MFN was that it would very harmful to Hong Kong economically if it were withdrawn or seriously constrained. The impact on China would be to harm those in the vanguard of economic reform who we wanted to help; and
using MFN as a lever would be unlikely to achieve the desired results on human rights. In his private discussions so far with the Administration the Governor said he had recognized that form of conditioning of MFN was very likely. His impression from
his talk with the President and others was that the Administration
wanted Co use MFN to edge China along the road on issues such as
human rights, weapons proliferation and trade abuses without provoking her to dig in, retaliate and create a major row. He hoped that whatever policy did emerge would involve Executive-led rather than Congress-led conditions; that the conditions would be achievable and fairly unspecific; and that progress on Hong Kong's constitutional concerns would not be amongst them.
HKB 091/1 RECEIVED IN
12 MAY 1993
RY
CONFIDENTIAL
RISTR
DESK OFFICER INDEX
PA
Acter
pa.
Xe
10/1