TNAG-2079-FCO40-2959-Hong-Kong-press-coverage-and-reports-1990 — Page 252

Francis Maude's visit last week to Peking and Hong Kong has been criticised as evidence that we have turned a blind eye to the atrocities of Tiananmen Square, and as an ill-timed breach of the EC

embargo on high level visits to China. I expected such criticism

when I asked him to go. I also knew, and Francis Maude stated in a

BBC interview before he left, that we could not expect to agree with

the Chinese government on many of the issues on our agenda. But the

case for asking him to go was overriding.

We cannot forget or forgive the terrible events of 4 June 1989. The West was right to impose sanctions, in which we joined, and we must keep up the pressure for democracy and human rights in China. But

the West also has at some point to resume political contacts with China. She is the most populous nation on earth; a nuclear power;

and a permanent member of the Security Council. She has a major

role to play in global and regional issues: none more importantinOK

more sensitive than Cambodia. After an event like Tiananmen Square

there is hardly ever a clearly identifiable "right time" to start

talking again. But for Britain, heat as our EC partners have

in fact recognised, the unique problem of Hong Kong means quite

simply that we do have to carry on doing business with Peking.

>

This was not our first contact since June 1989. John Major, as

Foreign Secretary, met his Chinese counterpart twice last year in

the margins of international meetings; and Sir Percy Craddock, the

Prime Minister's foreign policy adviser, went to Peking last

December. Francis Maude's visit was the latest step in a gradual

resumption of contact in which the overtures has come from China.

The recent lifting of Martial law in Peking and Lhasa and the

release of some political prisoners were welcome but only limited

steps towards improving human rights. Francis Maude again made

clear before he left that in Peking he would be pressing for more and he very explicitly did. There is absolutely no basis for accusations of appeasement.

In seven years time Britain's lease on Hong Kong runs out and

sovereignty reverts to China. There is no escaping that.

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