TNAG-1863-FCO40-2643-Future-of-Hong-Kong-Basic-Law-1989 — Page 78

CONFIDENTIAL

265

137014

MDHIAN 2621

CONFIDENTIAL

FM PEKING

TO IMMEDIATE F C O

TELNO 1942

HKB 012 11

TOP COPY

Q DET?

OF 02081OZ NOVEMBER 89

for

INFO IMMEDIATE HONG KONG, UKREP JLG HONG KONG

263

YOUR TELNO 2215 TO HONG KONG : BASIC LAW : DISCUSSIONS WITH THE

CHINESE : THE WAY FORWARD.

1. WE AGREE THAT A FURTHER EXCHANGE BETWEEN LEGAL EXPERTS NOW SEEMS UNLIKELY AND ARE CONTENT WITH THE PROPOSALS OUTLINED IN TUR.

ANY LETTER FROM THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO QIAN QICHEN WILL OF COURSE HAVE TO BE VERY CAREFULLY DRAFTED. WE AGREE WITH THE ELEMENTS SET OUT IN PARA 3 OF TUR ON WHICH SUCH A LETTER MIGHT BE BASED. BUT IT WILL ALSO HAVE TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE TERMS OF QIAN'S DISMISSIVE RESPONSE TO SIR G HOWE'S LETTER: AND IT WOULD BE PRUDENT TO START WITH A CLEAR STATEMENT OF OUR RECOGNITION THAT THE PREPARATION AND PROMULGATION OF THE BL ARE MATTERS FOR CHINA. WE ALSO AGREE THAT WE SHALL NEED TO EXPLAIN CLEARLY AND CAREFULLY TO THE CHINESE THE NATURE OF OUR CONCERN ABOUT THE LIKELY NEED FOR PUBLIC STATEMENTS, AND CONCUR WITH THE PROPOSAL FOR DOING SO IN PARA 4 OF TUR.

2. ON A PRACTICAL POINT, IT WOULD BE VERY HELPFUL IF THE TEXT OF FIFOOT'S NEW LETTER AND ENCLOSURE, TOGETHER WITH RELEVANT CHINESE TRANSLATION, COULD BE FAXED TO US (PREFERABLY FROM, OR VIA, HONG KONG SINCE THE HONG KONG-PEKING TRANSMISSION LINE IS CLEARER THAN THAT BETWEEN LONDON AND PEKING). WE WOULD PROPOSE TO HAND OVER THE FAXED TEXTS TO THE MFA AS SOON AS WE HAD INSTRUCTIONS TO DO SO, PASSING THE SIGNED ORIGINAL LETTER TOGETHER WITH TYPED ENCLOSURE AND TRANSLATIONS TO THEM IN SLOWER TIME.

3. INCIDENTALLY, TUR DOES NOT SAY IF YOU WOULD ENVISAGE HANDING OVER THE FIFOOT/SHAO TEXTS ONLY IN PEKING, OR TAKING PARALLEL ACTION HERE AND IN HONG KONG. IT OCCURS TO US THAT IT MIGHT BE AN INTERESTING EXPERIMENT FROM THE LEAKS POINT OF VIEW TO CARRY OUT THE TRANSACTION IN PEKING ONLY. IF A LEAK THEN OCCURRED IT OUGHT TO BE MUCH HARDER FOR THE CHINESE TO TRY TO DIVERT BLAME TO EITHER HKG OR HMG.

BAILES

1

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