CONFIDENTIAL
- 2
visited Hong Kong, though not in the same manner as other visiting Ministers: they often came unannounced. The Governor had been very well received in Peking by Deng and the Minister responsible for Tourism and Hong Kong and Macao Affairs, who was a member of the Revolutionary Committee. Relations had greatly improved over the past eighteen months. The Governor was highly regarded in China. China's concern for Hong Kong extended to telling Communist trade unionists (who represented 65% of trade unionists) that they wanted no trouble. There should be no go-slows or
strikes.
IMMIGRATION
4.
Sir Jack described the two sorts of emigrants from China. The number of legal immigrants (those who held Chinese re-entry documents) had grown from an average level of 50 per day to:
June 1978
93 per day
July 1978 December 1978
150 per day
310 per day
He said there was little likelihood of sending any of these "visitors" back; the only hope was a reduction in numbers of those allowed through by the Chinese. There had always been legal immigrants into Hong Kong. The increase began late in 1978, due to the withdrawal of the 42nd Army from the Hong Kong area to
the Vietnamese frontier. In early June 1979 an average of 800-900 illegal immigrants had been caught each day. It had been estimated that at the end of 1978 those who evaded capture exceeded the captured by 3:1. In March/April 1979 the rate was 2:1 and in June 1979 1:1. In June, the number of legal and illegal immigrants and refugees was approximately 2,000 per day.
In addition, there were 30,000-50,000 immigrants in Macao waiting for the opportunity to get to Hong Kong.
CONFIDENTIAL
/INDO-CHINESE REFUGEES
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.