TNAG-1233-FCO40-1546-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 63

THIS IS A COPY THE ORIGINAL HAS BEEN CLOSED FOR

YEARS UNDER FOI

EXEMPTION No. 27.(1).

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Future of Hong Kong:

Conversation with Edmund Lau

Edmund Lau came to see me today. He has been in Peking

for the past few days (he returned to Hong Kong on 16 October).

He saw Liao Chengzhi in hospital. According to Edmund, Liao

made the following points:-

(a)

The Chinese position as explained to Mrs Thatcher

by Zhao and Deng was not negotiable.

(b)

the desire to use Hong Kong as an example to

encourage the nationalists to be reasonable was no

longer an important consideration in the Chinese

: leadership's minds.

(c) The atmosphere in the discussions thus far had been

highly confrontational. This reduced the willingness

(d)

of the Chinese to accommodate any British arguments.

If the confrontation persisted the Chinese would be

obliged to make a public statement of their intention

to resume full control of Hong Kong in 1997 within a

year or two. (Edmund added, that he had with difficulty

persuaded Liao to tell him that the deadline for making

such a statement would be June 1984. Edmund said that

this was extremely sensitive and asked me not to

divulge this date to anyone.)

Edmund claimed to have told Liao that Chinese insistence

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