TNAG-2119-FCO40-3025-Future-of-Hong-Kong-general-1990 — Page 276

BACKGROUND

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1. Mr Adley's starting point is that Hong Kong's future

lies with China and it cannot be in Hong Kong's interest to

antagonise the Chinese. He considers the Joint Declaration

an excellent agreement and has been supportive about Government policy in the past. But he believes that we and Hong Kong have overreacted to the June events in Peking and that our initiatives since then, in particular the Nationality Bill and the move towards greater democracy, represent breaches of the spirit if not the letter of the

Joint Declaration. Mr Adley also objects to what he calls deliberate aggravation of the Chinese: in November he criticised a speech by Mr Barrie Wiggham and more recently he wrote to the Secretary of State about some comments by Mr Maude on the "Today" programme of 6 April.

2.

Mr Adley visited China with a group of MPS in October 1989. His attitude to Hong Kong and the Hong Kong

Government is somewhat ambivalent. We understand that there

was an incident in the early 1980s when he accused the Hong Kong Government quite wrongly of mounting a smear campaign against him.

3. Mr Adley has tabled a new clause and several amendments

for consideration in the Third Reading debate of the British

Nationality (Hong Kong) Bill on 13 June. All these

amendments appear to be inspired by Mr Adley's belief that HMG failed to consult the Chinese adequately before and during consideration of the nationality package. However, the new clause he has moved appears to be a wrecking amendment since it would place an obligation on the

Secretary of State to demonstrate that his actions and those

of the Governor under the Bill were in accordance with the

Joint Declaration. By requiring evidence that the Chinese Government accepted that this was so, the proposed clause

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