LORD GORONWY-ROBERTS'S VISIT TO HONG KONG: 11-17 JANUARY
BRIEF NO. 11: CHINESE REPRESENTATION IN HONG KONG
1.
From 1945 to October 1949, there was an official Commissioner of the Chinese (Nationalist) Government in Hong Kong. He gave the Government of Hong Kong a great deal of trouble.
2.
The present Chinese Government first proposed that a representative of their Ministry of Foreign Affairs should be established in Hong Kong in February 1956. They have returned to the issue on subsequent occasions and formally revived it with Sir John Addis in March 1972, immediately after the agreement on the exchange of Ambassadors. They have urged its acceptance several times since, although not yet on the present Government. It has been consistently rejected.
3. The Chinese have argued that acceptance of their proposal would be appropriate in the present state of relations between China and the United Kingdom; that it would be of practical advantage to all concerned; and that an official Chinese representative, once established, would do nothing to interfere with the good government of Hong Kong. In May 1974 Mao Tse-tung told Mr Heath that the Chinese were not thinking of any fundamental change in the status of Hong Kong. Vice-Premier Teng Hsiao-p'ing added that they nevertheless felt a need for an official representative in Hong Kong. A representative would never exploit his position to attain other ends.
4.
The objections seen to acceptance of the proposal have been that it would:
(a) severely damage business confidence in and over
Hong Kong because such an extension of the Chinese Government's presence would be taken as heralding a change in the Colony's status;
CONFIDENTIAL
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/(b)
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