01215
RECEIVED IN RECION
11 MAR 1993
DESK OFFICER
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PA
REOBIN Action Take
The Rt. Hon. Lord Shawcross G.B.E, Q.C. 60 VICTORIA EMBANKMENT
LONDON EC4Y OJP
071-325 5133
23 February 1993
The Rt Hon Douglas Hurd CBE MP Secretary of State for Foreign and
Commonwealth Affairs
Foreign & Commonwealth Office London SW1A 2AH
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Thr. Ricketts HKD (22)
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PS/2 Goodland
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In my letter to you of 9 February I mentioned that Lord Roll and I would be dining with the Chinese Ambassador, which we did last night.
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The conversation was mainly about Hong Kong and what was best to be done. Although the Ambassador gave nothing away I think he listened attentively to what Eric Roll and I had to say. both gained the impression that if you were now to take the opportunity of the usual six-monthly meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister (which is in any case a little overdue) a solution of the Hong Kong problem could be found with a little face-saving on both sides. The Ambassador was, however, adamant in the view that the future of Hong Kong was a matter for direct discussion between governments, e.g. in the UK and Beijing, or through diplomatic channels and not from the colony direct to Beijing. Eric Roll and I both thought that if you saw fit to inform the Chinese foreign minister that in view of the fact that the Governor's proposals were no more than that and that it might be useful to have a discussion about other proposals for resolving outstanding matters on a direct minister to minister basis with a view to achieving the "convergence" to which you had referred in one of your earlier letters, this might meet with a useful response.
I venture to think that it might be helpful to you to see Eric Roll who has just been on a visit to Hong Kong and received some very explicit views from leading figures in the banking world.
I hope you will not think it impertinent of me to make these suggestions which call for no reply, but I am deeply interested in what you also called the smooth transition of Hong Kong to Chinese rule. As the Ambassador remarked, Hong Kong should be an economic bridge between the outside world and China and Britain should have a leading interest in that bridge. As China is quite likely to be the leading industrial/economic world power by 2015 such a bridge could be of great assistance to the UK.
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