CONFIDENTIAL
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
FILE
HKK040|5
RECEIVED IN ÆRUMPY NG. $1
12 APR 1983
::
DESK OSPICES
Telephone 01- 233 372DES
PA
M CHIOA
S J Gomersall Esq
WASHINGTON
Your refererfee-
Our reference HKK 040/5
Date
8 April 1983
Dear Stephan,
CENTRE FOR STRATEGICAL INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY : SEMINAR ON HONG KONG
(97)
1.
Many thanks for your letter of 23 March reporting on the seminar. I was interested to hear the views of Dr Wei, as well as David Laux's remark about the Hong Kong problem seeming to have become 'a matter of controversy within the Chinese Party bureaucracy'. I am not sure that, on the evidence. available to us, there is much disagreement over the funda- mentals, but clearly there is still a considerable grey area and apparently a variety of views where details are concerned.
2.
I thought your comments.hit the right note, especially about the Hong Kong Government's continued commitment to investment in the territory. I hope that they will have gone some way towards reassuring the more gloomy members of the group. As you say, if a British presence at meetings of this kind helps to bring a bit of balance into the discussion, without encroaching into the area of sovereignty and the talks, then this is all to the good.
3.
I ought also to acknowledge your letter of 17 March to Dick Clift, about American visitors to China. I am glad that Rope's deputy, after further consideration, took a rather more helpful line (your paragraph 2) on the congressional visits. Needless to say, we continue to be interested in hearing of high-level visits to China, or for that matter to Hong Kong, in which connection I note from our copy of Mark Goodfellow's minute of 25 February that Tom Shoesmith may be going there in November.
Cc:
Jour
Wanick
W Morris
Hong Kong and General Department
R Pargolis Esq, DPA, Hong Kong
RN Peirce Esq, Peking
PA B Thomson Esq, FED, FCO
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