TNAG-0734-FCO40-938-Reports-of-Standing-Committee-on-the-Planning-Progress-of-Ho-1978 — Page 17

CONFIDENTIAL

Air Services

5.4 A temporary operating permit was issued to the Chinese on 7 December for a maximum of two scheduled services per day between Canton and Hong Kong, valid until 28 February 1979. It is signi- ficant that the Chinese have accepted UK authorisation for the permit, for what they consider intra-China flights. The Chinese have indicated that they may wish to increase the number of flights to three per day from 2 February, and have said that they wish to settle the problem of regional flights first before giving consider- ation to air links between the UK and China.

Immigration from China

5.5 Despite repeated representations in Hong Kong, London and Peking, we have still not persuaded the Chinese authorities to limit the number of immigrants from China arriving in Hong Kong over 60,000 legal and an estimated 30,000 illegal immigrants having arrived in the first 11 months of this year. HM Ambassador in Peking has now been instructed to make a formal approach to the Chinese Foreign Minister in which he will make a reference to the possibility of imposing a control on numbers on the British side of the frontier if the Chinese Government are unable to limit the numbers themselves. The problem of ethnic Chinese from Vietnam who, having spent time in China, try to enter Hong Kong illegally, will

also be raised.

CONFIDENTIAL