TNAG-1411-FCO40-1887-Future-of-Hong-Kong--Hong-Kong-a-Change-of-Destiny---despatc-1985 — Page 4

CONFIDENTIAL

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But there was never any doubt that their leaders regarded

it as more important to secure the reunification of Hong Kong

with the mainland than to preserve the economic benefits they

received from the territory. We therefore had to walk a fine

line in the negotiations. On the one hand, we had to achieve

as much as we could for Hong Kong. On the other we had to

avoid pushing the Chinese to the point where they decided that

the price for agreement was too high. In this situation it was axiomatic that we could not afford to test any hypothesis to

destruction. We had to rely heavily on the judgement of our

negotiators as to what the Chinese could ultimately be brought

to accept. Despite the weakness of our bargaining position we

achieved remarkable concessions from the Chinese.

I will not easily forget my own involvement in the

negotiations, including my visits to Peking and Hong Kong in

the spring and summer of 1984. Two events stick particularly in my mind as turning points. The first was the indication by

Deng Xiaoping at my meeting with him on 31 July 1984 that, despite

all that he had said before, the Chinese had finally come to the

conclusion in the course of the negotiations that they could trust Britain on Hong Kong. The second was my meeting with EXCO the

next day in Hong Kong when Sir S Y Chung expressed his

appreciation of the efforts of all involved and said that the

agreement was likely to be such that the Unofficials could commend

it to the people of Hong Kong in good conscience.

As you make plain, the role of the Unofficials in the negotiations was a particularly difficult one. They fought hard for what were, in their best judgement, the interests of Hong

Kong. But they were constrained by the confidentiality of the

negotiations from testing their judgement on the people of

Hong Kong. They therefore faced alone a series of agonizing decisions and they made them courageously. Not unnaturally their very determination at times generated tension between them and the negotiators. But as you say, the net effect of

CONFIDENTIAL.

/their