CONFIDENTIAL
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7. My visit came in the wake of a vote by the relevant LegCo panel for transparency in our bilateral talks with China. I doubt this was serious; it was merely an attempt largely by Martin Lee's UDHK party - to gain some local publicity. In practice, even Martin Lee's aims are not overly ambitious; he has said privately that it might be enough to see the agenda for the talks. Off the record, most LegCo members would accept the proposition that a significant breach of confidentiality would torpedo the talks and that this would be in no ones interest. This initiative was not therefore pressed hard during my visit. But it is a measure of how far "gesture politics" are becoming the norm in LegCo, that Allen Lee's Liberal Party permitted themselves the luxury of supporting the motion secure in the knowledge that the Hong Kong Government would ignore the vote.
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8. As usual, I sat in on a ExCo meeting. ExCo is a useful body for the Governor to guage the views of a variety of factions in Hong Kong. But it is little help in formulating policy and the local members proved singularly uncommunicative on this occasion. Some were arguing for holding firm and others for an early concession by the UK to stimulate movement in the talks - this translated into the proposal from Hong Kong for a message from you setting conditions on the offer of a bilateral with Qian Qichen (which has now been kicked into touch).
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9. The media aspects of the visit worked pretty well. the Governor commented when I was departing, they failed to open up the smallest gap between the Hong Kong Government and HMG. There was a small flurry subsequently over my comments to LegCo about any understanding reached with China having to be compatible with our international agreements and saleable to LegCo. But this is par for the course and was quickly damped down - helped by LegCo members giving diametrically opposed versions of what I said to the media.
Sir Percy Cradock's press briefings before my arrival were unhelpful, but not unduly so. Having been wrong-footed by the press on one occasion, he asked for a subsequent TV interview in which he argued that British policy on Hong Kong had changed after his departure from Whitehall but come back on track in April with our decision to reopen talks with China. This did little harm in Hong Kong, where he is generally despised, and I detected no answering resonance in the British press.
10. My predecessors tended to visit Hong Kong on average every 6 months. I think this is about right and, with your agreement, I will aim to visit again next October or January (when transport might be an appropriate sub-text).
A.S.
ALASTAIR GOODLAD
CONFIDENTIAL