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FM FCO
TO DESKBY 230001Z HONG KONG
TELNO 601
OF 221709Z JUNE 93
INFO DESKBY 23010OZ ATTC TAIPEI
INFO IMMEDIATE PEKING
INFO PRIORITY JLG HONG KONG
(11)
177425
MDHOAN 4641
Mr Kuuten to pa
(Taiwan(Hongkong)
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ion laken
23 Jun 1993
FOR ACTING POLITICAL ADVISER
YOUR TELNO 1011: VISA FOR JASON HU
*
(10
1 Jason Hu has been helpful to us over a number of difficult issues including the proposed British Aerospace JV, on which you will have seen the reports from Mr Morrice. This matter is now coming up for final decisions in Taiwan at about the same time as the visit to the UK (30 June-7 July) of the high-level mission Led by Jeffrey Koo. We are not sure that you have seen all the telegrams about this Mission, which will be the most senior group of Taiwanese businessmen to visit the UK and is being sponsored by the DTI. Jason Hu is not a member of the mission but has arranged to lead a group of Taiwanese journalists on a visit to the UK during the same week. Because of his ministerial status,
are not including Hu in any of the planned ministerial calls (Chancellor of the Exchequer, acting President of the Board of Trade, perhaps also for Koo alone a meeting with the Prime Minister), but he is being included in some less formal parts of the programme, and we would expect him to be in contact with key mission-members throughout their stay. We see him as an important ally both on the BAe project (on which 10,000 jobs here depend) and for our wider interests in Taiwan.
2. That said, we are also very conscious of the sensitivity surrounding the IISS/Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies' Conference and the risk that the Chinese might latch on to Hu's presence as another '' petty trick'' and use
and use this to delay progress in the constitutional talks.
3. We therefore agree with your suggestion that Mr Morrice speak privately to Hu and try to dissuade him from attending the Conference. If however Hu is unwilling to do this, we hope that you will agree to issue him a visa. A refusal would be a rebuff which would cause him to lose face and would give ammunition to
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