GOVERMENT HOUSE HONG KONG
7.
TUE 27 JUL 93 08:48
RESTRICTED
PG.04
:
On further prompting, Shu referred to the SCMP report of 26 July saying PRC officials had been helping Vietnamese to come to Hong Kong from Guangxi and hinted that it was not helpful. He was quick to point out that he was not alleging that the Hong Kong Government was the source of the report. I said if Shu had read the report carefully he would have noted the Hong Kong Government had made no comment. However, such reports would certainly raise public concern and the recent influx of ECVIIs was of course an issue which had aroused a lot of interest and concern among the public, legislators and the press.
8.
I
I repeated that unless we could begin returning people immediately, the flow would continue and probably get worse. In the past, the time required by the Chinese for checking records often ran into months and sometimes years. We could not afford to do this now in a crisis situation. hoped the Chinese side could be as flexible as possible. Even if they were not able to accept back immediately all those who had arrived in Hong Kong in one go, it would certainly help if they could quickly take back some of them. At present, the message that these people had no future in Hong Kong and that they would be repatriated was not getting through. I then handed over namelists for the fourth batch of ECVIIS (VRD Nos 21/93 29/93).
9.
Shu said he understood fully what I said.
However,
the Chinese side required time to sort things out as this was a complicated issue involving various authorities.
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