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INFO DESKBY 020030Z HONG KONG, UKREP JLG HONG KONG, TOKY
HONG KONG PERSONAL FOR DINHAM, GOVERNMENT HOUSE
YOUR TELNO 901: MY VISIT TO PEKING
1.
Ministers have decided that I should propose to pay a visit to Peking on 8-9 July.
2.
Grateful if you would speak urgently to the MFA on the following lines:
When Sir Robin McLaren asked Jiang Enzhu informally about Qian Qichen's availability on 9 July, Jiang confirmed that Qian would be available on that date.
The Foreign Secretary now wishes to propose formally that, if convenient to the Chinese side, he should visit Peking immediately after the G7 Summit in Tokyo. Other pressing commitments mean that he would only be able to pay a short visit to Peking. He could arrive on the late afternoon of 8 July and would need to leave at lunchtime on 9 July.
We therefore wish to explore the possibility of the Foreign Secretary holding a session of talks with Qian Qichen on the morning of 9 July, preceded by informal discussion over dinner on the previous evening.
We would envisage discussions covering Hong Kong (including the talks on electoral issues, the Airport and the JLG issues); bilateral and international issues.
We would be grateful for the earliest possible response to this proposal, if at all possible in the course of 2 July. We note that the possibility of a visit
by the Secretary of State was leaked to a Chinese Language Hong Kong newspaper on 1 July. This leak certainly did not come from the British side. It has inevitably led to intense press
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