TNAG-1626-FCO40-2240-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-Macau-1987 — Page 137

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China. In any case it seems that sufficient was said in the 1979 negotiations to enable the Chinese to claim that Portugal had accepted, even if only implicitly, that Macao was Chinese territory. The statement in 1979 by Song Zhiguang, then Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister, to the French Ambassador (cited in paragraph 7 of the 1983 paper) and the April 1985 comment by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman are to be seen in this light.

5. I am far from sure that any of this is helpful as regards the Falklands. From the late 1970s the Portuguese seem to have conceded the point that they did not have sovereignty over Macao, and the Sino-Portuguese negotiations now in progress seem bound to produce a solution broadly similar to that agreed for Hong Kong.

Menfalle

K C Walker

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