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Miss Kamsky had shown Ronnie Grierson the 14-page brief on China prepared for Clinton by his team. Two pages of the brief were on Hong Kong. They contained an assessment of the Chinese views of Chris Patten and described these as very negative. The assessment was that the Chinese would not make peace with Mr Patten. The brief contained a quotation from Professor Michael Lambton and one other American whose name I did not catch who had both advised against Clinton meeting Mr Patten. The brief concluded that Mr Clinton should be less clearly involved on our side than he might otherwise wish to be, though he should continue to be helpful to us behind the scenes.
Ronnie Grierson added that about four weeks ago Chinese leaders had approached Miss Kamsky and asked her to pass various messages to Mr Clinton which she had done. These related entirely to US-Chinese relations on one particular issue (of which Grierson did not have the details). Miss Kamsky had been able to get a view from Mr Clinton and the matter had then been resolved with the Chinese. More recently, the Chinese leadership had asked Miss Kamsky to pass messages to Mr Clinton about Hong Kong telling him how appallingly Mr Patten had behaved over Hong Kong and clearly advising Mr Clinton not to get involved on our side. Miss Kamsky had added that the former Chinese Ambassador in London who now works in the UN Secretariat was in daily contact with Peking and remained a key adviser of the Chinese Government.
In response to a question from Ronnie Grierson Miss Kamsky said that she would be willing to talk to the Prime Minister about what she knew of Chinese attitudes. She thought she might be able to be helpful.
In response to probing from the Prime Minister Ronnie Grierson said that he had absolutely no doubt of Miss Kamsky's integrity. She was not putting herself forward to talk to us but had indicated her willingness to do so in response to his question to her.
The Prime Minister said he thought that if the Chinese saw that Miss Kamsky was talking to us her position would be compromised vis à vis them if she became Assistant Secretary. It might also be rather awkward for Mr Clinton. Ronnie Grierson questioned this though he acknowledged that Miss Kamsky would certainly want to tell Mr Clinton if she was planning to come to London.
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