RESTRICTED
FM PARIS
RESTRICTED
MK2 021/4
HKD RECEF
2 9 NOV 1993
DESK OF:
INDE/
TO ROUTINE FCO
TELNO 1195
OF 23181OZ NOVEMBER 93
piternational Support per.
100172
MDLIAN 1955
INFO ROUTINE HONG KONG, PEKING, BTCO TAIPEI, BONN, THE HAGUE INFO ROUTINE WASHINGTON
FRANCE/HONG: CHIEF SECRETARY'S VISIT TO PARIS
SUMMARY
1.
Successful visit. Mrs Chan made excellent impact on French opinion formers and business community.
DETAIL
Although
2. Mrs Anson Chan visited Paris on 17-20 November, substituting for the Governor who was unavoidably committed elsewhere. this meant that some senior meetings fell away, Mrs Chan saw External Trade Minister Longuet, the President of
the Senate, the vice-President of the National Assembly and Quai Secretary General Dufourcq. There was a good turn out at my lunch for politicians, officials and journalists.
The Hong
Kong Business Conference, the airport workshop, the film festival and the fashion show were well attended.
3. Mrs Chan had a number of opportunities to set out directly to French opinion formers the prospects for Hong Kong after 1997 and a briefing on the talks with the Chinese. She did this to great effect, impressing particularly the President of the Senate and the senior people at Le Figaro newspaper. The meeting with Longuet, which was the key Ministerial contact, offered a chance to discuss bilateral and regional trade.
COMMENT
4. Although there was inevitable disappointment that the Governor himself was not able to come, Mrs Chan's eloquence and her bullish message about Hong Kong made a real impact. The French are fascinated and nervous about 1997. There is much interest in China, with a French concern that they are falling behind their European competition (especially Germany) in the commercial race to help China modernise. As a former colonial power they are
1
PAGE RESTRICTED
81