TNAG-1984-FCO40-2817-Presentation-of-UK-policy-on-Hong-Kong-to-the-media-1989 — Page 41

CONFIDENTIAL

(b) a selection of bull points on Hong Kong be circulated to

Ministerial colleagues on the OD net, to senior FCO officials and possibly to well disposed MPs. I submit draft bull points covering all the key issues.

(c) our paper on Hong Kong, which was sent to the Prime

Minister in advance of the Governor's call on 22 February, be

circulated on the OD net.

Background

3.

We have in recent months become increasingly aware of two

problems in relation to the presentation of our policy on Hong Kong:

(a) a tendency in some other Government Departments who have frequent cause to deal with matters involving Hong Kong to overlook some of the underlying sensitivities and objectives of our policy;

(b) an increasingly critical attitude towards our policy on the

part of the media. This has taken the form not only of a belief

that we are not doing enough in defence of Hong Kong's interests;

but also a tendency (eg on behalf of the Economist) to re-open the whole question of the background to the negotiations of the Joint Declaration. In some cases it is evident that press commentators

are simply unaware of some of the basic facts about Hong Kong.

A.

The attached material is designed to rectify this state of

affairs. The bull points are divided into sections and are in a simple and straightforward form so as to make them more manageable and accessible to the non specialist. The sections in the information pack are unclassified and could therefore be handed over to journalists and other contacts as and when the need arises. It may however be worth considering producing a classified annex to the pack which could be used to brief Ministerial colleagues on more sensitive aspects of Hong Kong (such as defence and public order, passports and nationality etc).

AR Panc

A R Paul

CONFIDENTIAL