HKB
Come Depot. By Mr Goodlad
p.s.
301/1
PBC RAD 4 TODAY "RECERED IN REGISTRY
Mr James Miles
A
29 MAR 1993
DESK OFFICER INDEX
PA
REGISTRY Action Taken
Miss Padden Püzden
Dr J. Oes
Mr Hum
63
Mr Rickett, HK,
In Bunks 727 Mr Mones, FED
どりっ
MONES,
Mr Rickham,
Special Advisers
it will now go forward to the Legislative Council and then it will be up to the Legislative Council to decide whether or
not it should be adopted in its current form or it should be
revised or abandoned.
Q
A
So he has thrown down the gauntlet? The Chinese clearly did not
want him to do this and he has done it?
Very much so. The Chinese were gratified over the last few
weeks that he kept delaying the publication of this Bill. Now
that he's gone ahead and published it the Chinese are likely to
respond with a new barrage of vitriol against Mr Patten and I
think their strategy now will be to try to encourage members of
the Legislative Council, it'll be a last ditch effort by the
Chinese but persuade them that if they do go ahead and actually adopt this legislation then this could have devastating
consequences for Hong Kong so it's likely now to be a very tense
period for the next few weeks while the Legislative Council
discusses it.
Q
You use the word encourage, perhaps a more accurate word would
be threat?
A
Yes, the Chinese do appear to be adopting that kind of strategy.
That has been their strategy over the last few months. At the end of last year they were trying to persuade Hong Kong's business community to fall in line with Peking by making it clear
that all contracts would have to be cleared with the Chinese
Authority. Long-term contracts would have to be cleared with
them if they were to be put into effect before 1997. So that
will be their tactic I think now to undermine confidence in the
business community and use the business community and hopefully from China's point of view the legislature as well to put pressure on Mr Patten either not to put his Bill forward to the
Legislative Council at all or at least to persuade the
Legislative Council to revise it or abandon it.