TNAG-1255-FCO40-1588-Third-countries-and-the-future-of-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 182

SECRET AND PERSONAL

MKKO4015

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY'

2 1SEP 1983

DESK OFFICER

INDEX

PA

A E Donald Esq (CMG

REGISTRY

Action Taken

~ Co123/9

Foreign and Commonwealth Office SW. 1

Drité

BRITISH EMBASSY,

WASHINGTON, D. C.

25 August 1983

Replied behalf.

332

Mr. Donald's

2011

My dear Alam,

HONG KONG

Inlin

See (334)

1. I called this afternoon on Bill Brown, the new Deputy Assistant Secretary for Far Eastern Affairs at the State Department, to bring him up to date on our negotiations with the Chinese on the future of Hong Kong, on the basis of your telegram No 1376. I had asked to see Paul Wolfowitz /an appointment but since he was away I accepted/with Brown who has replaced

Shoesmith. I took Stephen Gomersall with me and Brown was accompanied by a desk officer. No one else was present.

2.

307

I told Brown that at the start of our exchanges with the Chinese on Hong Kong, Mr Pym had briefed Secretary Shultz in general terms about our intentions and had undertaken to keep him informed. The purpose of my call was to live up to this undertaking and I asked Brown to let the Secretary know that this had been done. That said, I explained that the Prime Minister had launched the process herself with her visit to Peking last September and that she was extremely concerned to maintain an atmosphere of complete confidence in the minds of the Chinese. For this reason, we were keeping the details of the talks very close. But we wanted to give the Americans, and Secretary Shultz in particular a general account of how we were getting on.

3. I then took Brown through paragraphs 2 -

5 of your telegram. There was a glint in his eye when I mentioned that the Chinese had rehearsed their basic views on Hong Kong and that more details had emerged on their "plan" but he was too polite to add to my embarrassment by asking for details. Nor did he press me for any of the supporting evidence which suggested that the Chinese had not yet thought through the detailed issues concerning the administration of Hong Kong.

4. Brown thanked me for sharing with him what he described as the bare bones of our experience so far and undertook to let Secretary Shultz have a note on what I had said. He had been in Hong Kong himself at the time of the return from Peking of the young professionals and had been struck by their frankly stated beliefs that the solution we were seeking for the future of Hong Kong would not work. But I think this was offered to

/me as a

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