Mr Fry, FED
CONFIDENTIAL
02015
FROM:
RI
DATE:
¿c:
AUL 1993
Mr Hum
J C Morris
Hong Kong Department
30 July 1993
Mr Wye, RAD Mr Bunter
Token!
70.
TAIWAN/CHINA/HONG KONG
1.
Michael Yahuda, LSE, telephoned me to report on two matters of interest arising from his recent visit to Taiwan in connection with the LSE's plan to set up a Centre of Asian Studies. He had met Raymond Tai, (Head of the TRO in London and now a Presidential Adviser) who had asked him "what could the Representative of China do to help the development of democracy in Hong Kong. (I ventured the informal comment "in four words: 'stay out of it'").
2.
Secondly he had learned that the DPP in Taiwan were organising a conference at the end of August to invite advice from foreign experts on Taiwan's proposal for membership of the UN; (Yahuda had been invited to write a paper on the relevance of the JD negotiations to Taiwan's UN membership problem).
3. Yahuda thought that this appeared to indicate a change of attitude in Taiwan to Hong Kong. They seemed to see possibilities for Taiwan in the relationship between Hong Kong and the PRC. I made the obvious point that, since China viewed the success of the "one country two systems" principle in Hong Kong as a model for the PRC's rapprochement with Taiwan, it was conceivable that Taiwanese politicians thought there might be some leverage here which they could exploit. Yahuda agreed but offered the contrasting thought that UDHK politicians had told him that they believed that the abuse China had heaped upon Mr Patten had helped the DPP in the December elections. A lot of Taiwan's foreign policy continued to be driven by domestic political in-fighting.
4.
Comment: It is tempting to see in Raymond Tai's question no more than traditional KMT mischief-making. But from what little I know of him, that would not seem characteristic. It would not surprise me if the Taiwanese were starting to think about what positive advantages (other than simply continuing their successful investment in South China) might be gained from the China/Hong Kong model of cooperation (no irony intended!).
sthan
J C Morris
min. yahuda.MORRIS
JEB
CONFIDENTIAL