04011
CONFIDENTIAL
(382)
A E Donald Esq CMC
Foreign and Commonwealth Office LONDON SW 1
Den Alan
HONG KONG
HKK040
RECEIVED I PUGISTRY
DES
16 983
REGISTRY
Action Taken
INDEX
내
и сных
BRITISH EMBASSY,
WASHINGTON, D. C.
13 May 1983
See (385)
(Mr. Clips (0.2)
Mr. Elight draft submit Enter and resubmit
with a draft answer,
Specially an pera 5.
Antonald 2675
1. Stephen Gomersall And I invited the Minister at the Chinese Embassy, Ji Chaozhu, to lunch last week with one of his colleagues. The purpose was primarily to develop our contacts with the Embassy, and with Ji, who, as John Holdridge told you last year, is credited with playing quite an important role behind the scenes during last year's negotiations on the Taiwan arms question. Ji is an extremely engaging interlocutor, and I can quite see why the Americans found him a distinct change for the better. He was educated in the United States both as a child in New York, whither his family fled during the Japanese invasion, and later at Harvard. He said he returned to China in 1950 as the Korean War broke out but left behind his brother, who is now an actor in Los Angeles. He jested (or was it in jest?) that he and the Sovietologist colleague he brought with him were both treated as spies during the cultural revolution. Ji came over here when a liaison office was established in 1973 and though he has been back in China in the interim, has been closely involved with US policy makers ever since.
2. We had only a brief discussion of Hong Kong, and though I think that Ji was freewheeling rather than speaking on instructions, you might be interested to know what transpired. Ji led into the conversation by saying that our bilateral relations were very good, and he thought they would continue to improve. Our differences over Hong Kong were of a much lesser degree than those between the US and China over Taiwan. a willingness on both sides to settle the Hong Kong issue in a friendly manner. He thought it was not at all difficult to imagine a solution which would be acceptable to both our governments and to the people of Hong Kong. I hope I made the right noises from our side, drawn from the appropriate parts of recent telegrams.
3.
He saw
We had a good natured exchange about the spirit of free enterprise in Hong Kong and mentioned the prospects for further cooperation between Hong Kong and the hinterland. Ji said
CONFIDENTIAL
/ that the
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.