TNAG-1290-FCO40-1642-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-Taiwan-1984 — Page 16

น

CONFIDENTIAL

Y

to states. Hong Kong jointed as an associate member.

The

(vii) 1978: The Chinese representative at ESCAP* made some very

low key objections to descriptions of Hong Kong as a country.

problems were settled amicably.

(viii) May 1978: The Chinese delegation attending the

Communications Division of ICAO sought support for a text amending

ITU Radio Regulations.

Their new text read: "For the purpose of

a

the service documents, a country shall be understood to mean the

territory within the limits of which the station is located:

territory which does not have full responsibility for its

international relations shall be considered as a geographical area

for this purpose." They cited Hong Kong as an example. In fact the

proposal received no support and was not pursued.

(ix) November 1978:

The Chinese asked for the Hong Kong entry in

the International List of Post Offices to be corrected to appear as

part of the territory of China, and in any case not be shown as a

'country". It appears that we reacted in our standard way (ie by

referring back to Sir Colin Crowe's 1972 statement).

(x) May 1982: The Chinese objected to the term "Government of

Hong Kong" in a UNDP document, and suggested that "territory of Hong

Kong" should be substituted.

(xi) 1982: The Chinese objected to the listing of Hong Kong as an Overseas Territory of the UK in UPU documents. They said this

classification was inappropriate (but our records do not show

whether they suggested an alternative). They made a similar

objection in 1983. On both occasions we instructed the UK

delegation to circulate the standard written statement.

(xii) September 1982:

Hong Kong was listed in an ICAO document in

a way which implied it was a State. We drew the secretariat's attention to the error, and the entry wass amended to "United

Kingdom Dependent Territory Hong Kong". The Chinese objected, and

the document was subsequently amended to avoid reference either to

"States" or to the UK dependency status of Hong Kong. We did not

CONFIDENTIAL