TNAG-1041-FCO40-1291-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1981 — Page 31

10.

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THIS IS A COPY

THE ORIGINAL HAS BEEN CLOSED FOR

LLO YEARS UNDER FOI EXEMPTION No.....71.

The Prime Minister has provisionally

There

Prime Minister's Visit.

earmarked September 1982 for a visit to China. It is important that she should be aware of the Hong Kong angle to this visit. would be expectations there that she will be seeking a solution to

the problem of the future of Hong Kong. There is considerable

risk that the Chinese would not be prepared to add to their

earlier general assurances. This would bring disillusionment in

Hong Kong and itself affect confidence.

11.

Sovereignty. However, if the Chinese are prepared during

the visit or later on to have talks on Hong Kong, it is likely that

one major concession they would ask for would be British acknowledge- ment of Chinese sovereignty over the Territory!

12. In the case of the Falkland Islands, a lease-back in return

for acknowledgement of Argentine sovereignty has already been

canvassed. On Gibraltar, the Spaniards have so far been demanding

little more than British acknowledgement of their sovereignty

although they would see the next step as autonomy under the

Spanish Constitution. The whole idea is anathema to the vast

majority of Gibraltarians, who rely on the British pledge that they

will not pass under the sovereignty of another State against their

freely and democratically expressed wishes.

13. These problems should, however, be containable. There are

very important differences between the situation in Hong Kong and

Gibraltar. In the first place, there is no question of avoiding

change of some sort in 1997 as regards the New Territories.

Moreover, there is no specific pledge for Hong Kong comparable

to that made to the Gibraltarians. It is, of course, true that

successive British Governments have reaffirmed their commitment

to the people of Hong Kong but the nature of this has not been

made clear. This is because of the realities of our position in

Hong Kong which would make any undertaking to defend the Territory

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