23-FEB-1993
09:42
22-FEB-1993
18:24
FCO NEWS DEPT
Gallagher
071 270 3734
P.07 7.00
AORE)C TEDA
TRANSCRIPT A MR O'DONNELL/MR CORNISH/MR PELLEW BACKGROUND BRIEFING 22 FEBRUARY 1993
7
QUESTION:
You mentioned China and the MFN would be one of the items of discussion on foreign policy, how is the Prime Minister going to relate, apart from the Chinese issue, Mr Patten's political proposals in Hong Kong on his American trip, particularly to his encounter with Mr Clinton, are you trying to persuade him to support Mr Patten in Hong Kong?
MR Oʻ DONNELL:
I would very much hope that we will get support from the Americans for pushing forward the democratic process in Hong Kong, certainly that would be in tune with all the things that President Clinton has said during his campaign. The difficulty, and there is no point in hiding it, would be some of the things that President Clinton has mentioned during his campaign about MFN status and conditions that have been mentioned about applying to MFN status with regard to human rights and the rest of it. We have always in our trips to China emphasised the human rights dimension, we are very pleased with the recent release of more of the dissidents from Tiananman Square, so there have been some moves in the right direction there, but it is something that we will carry on pushing in all our relations with China. What we need to make clear to the American administration, as we have with previous administrations, is the importance to Hong Kong of China retaining the MFN status and that is something that we will want to do at some length.
(END OF TRANSCRIPT A, CONTINUED ON TRANSCRIPT B)
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