TNAG-0907-FCO40-1117-Immigration-from-China-to-Hong-Kong-1979 — Page 59

CONFIDENTIAL

MACK 3001/1,

ра

246

B

I C Orr Esq

Assistant Political Adviser

HONG KONG

ical

Dan Lain.

Immigration from China

1.

BRITISH EMBOS

PEKING

27 November 1979

Thank you for your letter.of 9 November, to which I am replying in Kim Sullivan's absence on leave.

2. On 20 November I invited some members of Western European Department to lunch to meet Ken Walker, who was visiting us, and I took the opportunity to ask Zheng Yaowen about the promised formal notification of China's policy that exit permits should not be issued to passport holders without valid visas for onward destination and that those arriving at the border without valid documentation could be returned. Zheng said this subject was still under discussion with "other departments concerned", notably with the Ministry of Fublic Security, and that we should receive notification in due course. I gained the impression that we may have to wait some little while longer.

3.

Meanwhile, our strong inclination is to continue our present policy of not issuing Hong Kong transit visas to Chinese travellers with valid US visa promise letters. The US Embassy assure us that any Chinese who can obtain a US visa can get it in Feking. They would prefer that we did not issue transit visas to holders of US visa promise letters, since this would

For our complicate life for them both here and in Hong Kong. part we should prefer not to issue such visas since to do so would involve our already overloaded visa section in considerable extra work: in each case we should need to check with the US Embassy that the visa promise letter was genuine end find out what the current position was on the preference category of the applicant. Finally, it is clearly preferable from your poinf of view that people should wait for their visss in China rather than in Hong Kong. The inconvenience caused reÿ¿dents in

Southern China who wish to settle in the United States and who must travel to Feking before their visa can be issued will

be removed by the setting up of the US Consulate in Canton.

cc: RC Fursland Esq

FED, FCO

*

PJ Williamson Esq

HK & GD, FCO

J WB Richards First Secretary

CONFIDENTIAL