CONFIDENTIAL
972/2
RECEIVED INI
20 DEC 1993
DESK C
INDEX
Mr Ricketts, HKD
201
Hong Kong:
Chinese Reactions
The Secretary of State was grateful for your submission of 10 December, and for Mr Hum's comments on it. He has felt since October that the Chinese have little incentive to settle the constitional issue with us, and that they are unlikely to do so. However, it is not in their interests or ours to magnify the constitutional disagreement. In the Secretary of State's view, therefore, our aim should be to play down the disagreement while remaining firm on the principle.
13 December 1993
CC
: PS
PS/Mr Goodlad
Sir J Coles
Mr Hum
Mr Fry, FED
Special Advisers
Hd/News
Planner es/eus
Stepm Smith.
(J S Smith)
CONFIDENTIAL