TNAG-0943-FCO40-1162-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1980 — Page 287

CONFIDENTIAL

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a) the British Government should make a formal public statement including the following points:

b)

i) that the Agreement is an agreement between States whereas Taiwan/Hong Kong flights are non- Governmental regional air traffic;

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ii) that the UK Government does not recognise the

insignia on CAL aircraft as national insignia;

nor does it recognise China Airlines as an airline representing a State.

The British Government should continue to work

to bring about the removal of insignia and national

flags from CAL aircraft.

c) CAL must be referred to by the British Government

and the British authorities in Hong Kong at air terminals etc. both in Britain and Hong Kong as

"China Airlines (Taiwan)".

d) In arranging CAAC and CAL flights, the authorities at Kai Tak should give priority to CAAC flights and ensure that the two will not coincide.

e) The offices and ground staff of CAL (Taiwan) should be withdrawn from Hong Kong before the opening day of air traffic between Britain and China.

The Chinese proposals took the Air Services Agreement beyond the framework of what Britain had generally regarded as a mainly technical agreement as it had not been a practice to associate political statements with such agreements with other countries. The conditions which the Chinese attached to the 1973 agreement thus made further progress impossible. The conditions had serious implications for the Hong Kong-based operator of flights to Taiwan, CPA, which feared retaliation by the Taiwanese authorities, the British carrier began to lose interest in the restricted route to Hong Kong, and the 1973 draft Air Services Agreement was allowed to lie dormant.