TNAG-0904-FCO40-1114-Immigration-from-China-to-Hong-Kong-1979 — Page 75

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CONFIDENTIAL

RECORD of a meeting held in the AP A's office

PENED IN NO

at 11.15 a.m. on Wednesday, 28 February 1979 6 MAR 1979

INDEX

•No.

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T:4.0

Immigration from China

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34

When Mr Tan Gan (Kan) accompanied by Mr Li Rouhe (Jo-ho) of NC NA called on me this morning to discuss the problem of Vietnamese refugees coming to Hong Kong via China (see separate record), he said that he had been asked by the Chinese authorities to explain a new procedure which they were considering introducing to deal with the problem of visitors to Hong Kong om China. The procedure being considered was that two types of travel permits would be issued single journey ones (roughly as at present) and a new double journey permit which would be called the "Shuang Cheng tong xing zheng" (7175 4453 6639 5887 6086). Double journey permits would only be given to people visiting. relatives or friends and would be carefully restricted to those who had made it clear that they would return to China at the end of their visit. Those with "good reasons" to stay permanently in Hong Kong would be given single journey permits. In the case of those holding double journey permits the Chinese authorities believed that Hong Kong "should not impose restrictions on their coming and should not include them in the daily arrival figures.. If any overstay the limits specified in the permit Hong Kong can take measures to send them back and they would be accepted by the Chinese authorities".

2.

Mr Tan said that a "comparatively small" number of people would be given single journey permits but he would not be drawn on a precise figure. He said that the background to this proposal was the recognition by the Chinese authorities that the present level of immigration vas causing problems for Hong Kong. He added that he believed that China would restrict "severely" the numbers coming to Hong Kong.

3.

I said that I could only offer brief initial comments on this proposal since it was an important suggestion which would have to be looked at carefully and closely by those concerned in the Hong Kong Government. We were grateful for the helpful intention behind this proposal. The major difficulty would be the question of those who overstayed. If they had not revealed their true intentions to the Chinese authorities, they would be likely to go to ground rather than report to immigration officials if they believed that otherwise they would be returned to China. As far as single journey permits

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