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internal repression. At a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 12 June European Community Foreign Ministers were agreed in condemning the repression while stopping short of cutting off economic ties with China, which could be used as a lever to influence internal policy. In China itself, those British citizens who wished to leave had mostly done so, though a number had chosen to stay on. Only essential staff now remained in the British mbassy, though its visa section would shortly be resuming Bagmal business. The United States had provoked Chinese
aper by giving refuge in its Embassy in Peking to the
seient Professor Fang Lizhi. A Second Secretary at the Chase Embassy in London had applied for asylum, and his case was being considered by the Home Secretary. Other simar applications were likely and would have to be considered, including those of students who feared persecution if they returned to China. To the extent that these included students on scholarships to which the British Goverment contributed funding there would be public expe
implications.
Although recents in China had severely shaken the confidence of Hendong, the Colony's financial system had borne up remarkab N the fall on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange had been Yeshan on Black Monday in October 1987. The House of Foreign Affairs Committee had taken evidence from the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir David Wilson, and subsequent
himself earlier that week,
and appeared to view the poems of Hong Kong with a fair degree of realism. Atten
Attene had focussed on the scope for strengthening democratic instions in Hong Kong and also on rights of abode and full Brit citizenship for
British passport holders. On one atter issue, the prevailing opinion in the Colon was that any selective approach would be inadequate and eptable. He had been asked by the Committee how the Goverment would respond to a worst case situation in which, after 1997, the inhabitants of the Colony fled en masse and sought asylum in this country as political refugees. He had replied that in that event the Government would have to take its obligations to Hong Kong refugees very serpusy indeed, but would need to seek the widest possible help
an
international basis. He would be visiting Hong Kong early
in July with the aim of reassuring the Colony
United
Kingdom's continuing commitment and of examining confidence could best be restored.
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In a brief discussion, it was noted that in the worst situation described by the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary the number of refugees was potentially 5 milN the entire population of the Colony.
British passport
3
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