NOTE FOR FILE
CONFIDENTIAL
Девн
Reg. cy/Researt De
dane pan +719 657
Hnn 0 18/5701/47 II
Call by the Governor of Macau on HE
Pls 2719
Rear Admiral Almeida e Costa paid a first courtesy call on the Governor at 5.15 pm on 15 September. Apart from some discussion about China's domestic and international policies, and the background to them, the main points raised were as follows.
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ie SAR
Status
1997
2.
HE said that before he had arrived in May he had not fully realised the extent of public concern about the 1997 problem. Noone had talked about it when he had been Ambassador in Peking from 1974 to 1978. He explained the evolution in Chinese thinking since 1979, as outlined to Lord MacLehose, Lord Carrington and Mr Atkins. The Chinese had told Mr Atkins that
they wished to preserve Hong Kong's prosperity as a free port and a commercial and financial centre; that they recognised that there was a problem and would be thinking about it; and that they would in due course consult "the various circles" in Hong Kong. Following this, various leading Hong Kong personalities had been invited to Peking to see Chinese leaders. This had naturally heightened interest. So had the fact that the Prime Minister, whose visit had been arranged for some time, was due to visit Peking in September. HE himself had visited London twice in connection with the visit and all this had served to build up expectations. The problem had been to damp down those expectations since, while some progress would probably be made, no settlement would emerge from Mrs Thatcher's visit.
3.
The
Rear Admiral Almeida e Costa thought that the Chinese would wish to delay any decision about the future of Hong Kong for as long as possible. They wanted to solve the Taiwan problem first. But people in Hong Kong wanted to know what was going to happen in 1997. He then referred to the Chinese Foreign Minister's visit to Portugal in June. Chinese were chary of talking to the Portuguese Government about Macau, preferring to deal with the Macau authorities through those in Guangdong. HUANG Hua had only mentioned the question to the President (to whom the Governor was directly responsible) and had said less to him than he had said to the press. (Comment HUANG Hua told Portuguese journalists on 24 June that "China would maintain the status quo in Macau, although in the future it could study, together with the population of Macau and the Portuguese authorities, other solutions for the territory which would not affect the standard of life of the population nor the interests of
foreign investors").
This was the first time any senior
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