TNAG-1827-FCO40-2595-Mutual-legal-assistance-between-Hong-Kong-and-the-UK-and-USA-1988 — Page 50

G Voysey Esq

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2

29 July 1988

visit to Warsaw. The signed texts and documents concerning ratification were exchanged in due course through Embassies. Since ratification was completed only recently the text of the agreement has yet to be published in Poland.

4.

The Polish side of the negotiations was wholly under the control of the Ministry of Justice, who sent six officials for the Peking talks with only one MFA "minder". The Chinese negotiating team was headed throughout by the Deputy Director of the MFA Treaty and Law Department, accompanied by one other MFA colleague, two from the Ministry of Justice, one from the Supreme People's Court and one from the Supreme People's Procuratorate. Once the general questions of scope and content had been agreed, the Poles found the Chinese side's negotiating style pretty brisk and businesslike. They went through the text paragraph by para- graph, suggesting technical adjustments in which they displayed considera ble familiarity with international law, but not reopening any questions of principle or enlarging on the possible effects and value of the agreement. Kuśnierz implied that the process could have been speeded up quite a bit at this technical stage, but that the Poles deliberately avoided hurrying so that the document could be signed during Zhao Ziyang' visit and the political impact maximised (a point we might ponder on ourselves).

5. I hope this may be of some interest to those in London who are now buckling down to the first steps in negotiation, and would be grateful if you could copy the letter appropriately. I am sending it to Warsaw for whatever marginal interest it might have in the Sino-Polish context.

Enc.

cc:

CT Wood Esq

Yours ever,

Alyson

Alyson J K Bailes

Hong Kong Dept, FCO (without enc)

SE Bradley Esq

DPA, HONG KONG (with enc)

Chancery, WARSAW (without enc)

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