TNAG-1020-FCO40-1270-Liaison-between-Hong-Kong-and-China-on-security-matters-1981 — Page 14

CONFIDENTIAL

2.

their main, if not only, interest was in establishing a system of liaison at the border by which information could be passed and ad hoc meetings set up when necessary. This included a proposal for direct telephone communication. It was interesting that they took the initiative in putting forward both points. Last year they had turned down a suggestion I made about direct telephone contact between immigration officers on both sides and they brushed aside suggestions about improving liaison or having more regular meetings on border affairs when these were made during the Governor's visit in October. My impression is that the Chinese mulled over our earlier suggestions, saw some merit in them, and, after obtaining approval from Peking, decided to put them forward in a slightly different form as their own suggestions.

4.

We started the discussions with a draft agreement produced by the Chinese. This was not bad. But it had a number of points which we did not like and left out some details which we thought ought to be included. We therefore drafted our own alternative memorandum that night and put it forward at the next day's meeting. With some minor alterations, Mr Zhang said he agreed with what we had suggested. But he said that he would still have to clear it with "higher authority" We therefore left it that both sides agreed the memorandum ad referendum and that we would communicate confirmation through NCNA.

5.

Some of

I am attaching a copy of the memorandum. the semantic infelicities are due to an attempt to incorporate sections of the Chinese draft. The main points about the agreement are:

(i)

(ii)

(iii)

6.

A system of nominated "liaison officers" who will be able to exchange information, deal with minor issues, and arrange meetings on problems which are beyond their scope;

A direct telephone link which will be manned 24 hours per day; and

An arrangement for calling meetings about border related problems. At our suggestion there is an agreement in principle that there should be a meeting once per month for the first four months. This is to give those most likely to be concerned a chance to get to know each other. Thereafter we would review the agreement to see whether regular or ad hoc meetings would be best.

On our side the agreement has now been approved by the Governor. I will therefore confirm it through NCNA later this week. There could of course still be difficulties over Chinese confirmation.

CONFIDENTIAL

/contd.

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