3.
For those for whom visas could quickly be issued there would, of course, be the final step of a journey to Peking to collect the visa and this would be a considerable hardship for the many applicants in Guangdong Province. However, that problem should shortly be solved if, as we have heard, a US consulate is to be opened in Canton during Vice President Mondale's visit to China.
4.
The non-US cases have shown a variety of features; the most common being the use of apparently official documents issued up to 5 or 6 years ago advising applicants that final processing for a visa could only be done in Hong Kong. We believe that for virtually all countries there is now no difficulty in issuing visas in Peking rather than in consulates or commissions here. We should be grateful if you could check whether any of the countries figuring on our list and which are represented in Peking have any difficulty in issuing visas. We see no reason why they should have, and we hope that no applicants are now being advised to travel to Hong Kong to complete visa formalities.
5.
There are additionally a considerable number of cases in which passport holders arrive with no supporting documentation or with documents which have clearly been tampered with and in some cases, perhaps, forged. We recognise that local officials in China may often have difficulty in assessing the validity of such documents (a point made to us by NCNA), but we also suspect there is considerable laxity in demanding proof that a visa could be obtained in Hong Kong. We can see no alternative to maintaining a straightforward rule that the Chinese should only give exit visas to passport holders who have obtained a visa for their stated destination. I shall write again on this subject as soon as we have further documentation which you might find useful in explaining the problem to the MFA.
6.
On the related problem of the Yugoslav loophole, we are grateful for the action you have taken with the MFA and Yugoslav Embassy (your telno 60 of 13 August). We have now had 3 further cases, in all of which the travellers intended going to France and had this stated as their destination on their Chinese exit visa. In one case the traveller claimed that he would proceed to Bugoslavia
Since he and make his application for a French visa there. chammed no relatives in Yugoslavia, we are certain that he will try to get a French visa here, but if that fails will remain in Hong Kong. You may find it useful to tell the MFA that the 2 Provinces in which the problem occurs most often is Zhejiang and Guangdong and that we hope helpful instructions can quickly be sent to Hangzhow and Canton.
CC HK&GD, FCO
FED, FCO
(I Corr)
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