TNAG-0943-FCO40-1162-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1980 — Page 160

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Option (e): If the Chinese were to renew their requests for

official representation, the arguments in favour of this option are probably stronger today than in 1973. The Governor, I suggest, would be less inclined to argue so strenuously against pursuing the question with the Chinese. Public confidence remains critical, but given the present very relaxed state of relations between Hong Kong and China, moves towards official representation ought not to lead to a collapse of the admini-

stration.

Option (f): There is still little to commend this course over

(e). The Chinese have not seriously raised the subject for a number of years.

4.

Since 1973, relations between Hong Kong and China have improved to the extent that the conditions may now exist for a transition from option (a) to (e), if the Chinese requested it, and especially if there were other gains to be made from our agreeing to such a development. We should still have to negotiate an appropriate title for any official representative and define his functions. This will be difficult; there is no clear precedent:

(a) Liaison Officer: A "natural" progression might be to give

official recognition and official status to the functions already performed by NCNA. That part of NCNA which presently performs quasi-official representational functions might then be titled the "Hong Kong Liaison Officer of the PRC". (b) Commissioner: A title conferring rather greater status would

be "Hong Kong Commissioner of the PRC". The draft Research Memorandum notes that in the past the Chinese have referred to the appointment by the Nationalist Government in 1945 of a "Special Commissioner of the MFA of the PRC" in Hong Kong as a precedent. However, I have not been able to trace any definition of the functions which this Commissioner, T W Kwok, was entitled to perform (I hope to have retrieved the relevant papers on Mr Kwok's appointment from the Public Records Office in the next few weeks). It seems clear that the references to Kwok by Zhou Enlai and others were not intended as references to precedent for the duties of a new Commissioner. Ji Pengfei, for example, said in June 1973 that "the functions of any representative could be carefully defined so that he knew what he should do and what not ... The Chinese side certainly did not wish to establish a separate regime in Hong Kong". (c) Representative of Guangdong: In 1945, Commissioner T W Kwok was, apparently, concurrently "Special Delegate of the MFA in Guangdong and Guangxi". In 1973, Ji Pengfei also mentioned the Guangdong/Hong Kong connection (record of conversation). This follows quite logically from the Chinese view that Guangdong Province has special responsibility for Hong Kong. However, this is not a view which we would wish to reinforce and it would seem desirable for any official Chinese represent- ative to be clearly designated an official of the MFA in Peking and not the Foreign Affairs Bureau in Guangzhou (Canton). This need present no problem, since Ji said in 1973 "the represent- ative could be a Representative of Guangdong, or he could be a Representative of the MFA". The new visa-issuing office in Hong Kong is also under the MFA and not the Provincial authorities.

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