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DSR 11
SOVEREIGNTY OVER HONG KONG
1. At paragraph 1(c) of his minute of 16 May on
New Territories Leases, Mr Clift suggests that we should be prepared in case the Chinese propose some kind of statement implying our recognition of their ultimate sovereignty over Hong Kong, and asks whether
this would affect the current basis of British
administration in the territory.
2. So far as I can judge, China has never yet proposed such a statement. Rather, there has been a parallel series of assertions of sovereignty over Hong Hong on the part of China and Britain. Though a conflict of claims is inherent in the situation, China has not
yet directly challenged us to defend our claim or asked
us to recognise its own.
3.
There are, of course, two different types of territory involved in considering Hong Kong; the ceded and the leased parts. In the past, the Nationalist Chinese, possibly as a negotiating tactic, appeared ready to confine their claims to the leased territories in the first instance. In turn, the Foreign Office has, in its guidance to posts (Intel telegram of 23 June 1964), advised that "the question of sovereignty over the leased territories is not entirely free from doubt" and counselled against making a "wholesale denial of Chinese claims to sovereignty" over these territories. The interdependence between the ceded parts, Hong Kong and Kowloon, and the leased parts makes it difficult in
/practice
SECRET
Dd 0532000 800M 5/78 HMSO Bracknell
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