TNAG-1254-FCO40-1587-Third-countries-and-the-future-of-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 201

SECRET DEDIP

of Hong Kong is participating on the British side

as

appropriate.

in accordance with the requirements of the talks

(eg he did so at both the July meetings and the→

The Chinese are insistent that

August meeting).

the talks are bilateral between Britain and

China and that the Hong Kong Government is not

a third party. In practice, however, we are in close

consultation with the Hong Kong Executive Council

and are taking their views into account.

3.

The atmosphere at the July and August rounds

was good, and the Chinese behaved better in the

sense that there were fewer leaks and less propaganda pressure. However, following the meeting

held on 3 August, Yao Guang did breach confidence

at a dinner with Scandanavian Ambassadors whilst

on 15 August, CCP General Secretary, Hu Yaobang

Position talk

gave a distorted view of the talks to Japanese

reporters. He told them that "Chinese would

recover sovereignty over Hong Kong on 1 July 1997

and gave the erroneous impression that we had

already conceded China's premise on sovereignty.

Despite the friendly atmosphere at the

4.

three rounds, the Chinese line on substance was

tough Throughout. progressively tough. They held to their position

on sovereignty and added to this the line that

sovereignty and administration were not divisible

Both sides rehearsed their basic views on Hong

Kong and more details emerged of China's Hong

Kong 'Plan'. HMG's objective during all these

meetings was to explain to the Chinese the

complexity of Hong Kong's economy and legal

system, The importance of the British link in

maintaining confidence and the consequent

/distrust

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