TNAG-1873-FCO40-2661-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-China-1989 — Page 10

CONFIDENTIAL

China Relations Committee: 15th Meeting

15 October 1988 at 9.30 a.m.

Present:

Apologies

Chief Secretary (Chairman)

Ag PA, Ag S for S, CCE, D of Imm,

STI, S for T, SLW, RSNT,

Govt Econ, SES, SDA.

received from:

SGD

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING

1.

The minutes circulated on 23 August were confirmed.

MATTERS ARISING

2.

(a) PRC Goods vehicles

C for C&E explained that the Chinese Customs had issued

customs ID cards to Hong Kong cross border lorry

drivers. The use of these cards would reduce the processing time of vehicles by 15 seconds. It would

also enable information to be held on the drivers, their

goods and whether they were known as smugglers. He had

wanted to do something similar in Hong Kong but since

the Chinese had set up an efficient system and they were

happy for us to use their cards, he wanted the

Committee's agreement to install the necessary equipment

on the Hong Kong side to read the Chinese cards. не

confirmed that HKG would have its own information on the

computers and that it would not be accessible to the

Chinese. Ag S for S commented that we were in effect

using the Chinese cards to trigger a Hong Kong

information system.

proposal.

The Committee endorsed C for C&E's

CONFIDENTIAL