TRILATERAL COMMISSION PEKING MEETING AND HONG KONG
CONFIDENTIAL
During the discussion period of the penultimate session of the Trilateral Commission's Meeting in Peking on Saturday May 23 (concerned with "World Issues and Defence Policy"), Mr. Shibusawa of Japan unexpectedly asked what the Chinese attitude towards Hong Kong was. Mr. Shibusawa said that Hong Kong was the last Colonial territory in the area and one of the last in the world, and that he was particularly interested in what would happen to the New Territories when the Lease expired.
Mr. Shibusawa's intervention, which he did not discuss with his British colleagues in advance, caused some agitation among the Chinese. At first the Chairman of the meeting, Mr. Xie Li, Secretary General of the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs, simply said that Vice Premier Deng had had talks and a statement of the Chinese Government's position had been made in 1979 and that there was nothing to add. This was backed up by Mr. Xu Xin, Vice Chairman of the Peking Institute for International Strategic Studies and Assistant Chief of General Staff of the P.L.A. However, after a pause and some evident interest on the part of other members of the Com- mission, Mr. Xie Li made a rather longer statement.
He said that the Chinese Government's attitude was clear cut and consistent.
a)
b)
In a letter dated 1972 to the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonisation, Mr. Huang Hua wrote in connection with Hong Kong and Macao that a series of unequal treaties had been imposed on China by Imperialist Governments in the past. Hong Kong and Macao had been occupied by Britain and Portugual. Settlement of this matter was entirely within the realm of Chinese sovereignty and by no means fell into the category of Colonial questions. These two territories should not therefore be included in the U.N. Committee's enquiry. As regards the Hong Kong and Macao question the Chinese Government had always held that when conditions were ripe, an appropriate method should be found to settle the matter. therefore no concern of the United Nations.
This was
Later, Chairman Hua made a statement on October 8th, 1979. There had also been talks with the Governor of Hong Kong and more recently between Lord Carrington and Vice Premier Deng Xiao Ping, in both of which the Chinese attitude had been expressed in a very clear cut way. Relations with the British Government and the Portuguese Government were good. The Chinese Government were ready to consider the question of Hong Kong, including the New Territories and Kowloon, and to seek a good solution by a process of mutual cooperation. No matter how tne problem was solved, China would always take into account the interests of investors in Hong Kong.
After this statement there was no further discussion of the matter although one of the Chinese participants asked me privately afterwards whether I had any worries or misunderstandings about their attitude towards Hong Kong: to this I replied that it seemed to me to be perfectly clear although there were certain practical problems which ought to be resolved.
26th May, 1981.
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