TNAG-2209-FCO40-3169-Future-of-Hong-Kong-principal-officials-1991 — Page 3

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Paper No. 1:

Policy

Principals Officials:

Introduction

i

This

paper briefly examines likely Chinese objectives;

and makes

The second

attitudes in the Hong Kong Civil Service;

recommendations on how HMG/HKG should proceed. paper (below) contains a summary of the substantive exchanges we have had with the chinese on the subject so far.

Chinese objectives

2.

The evidence we have of Chinese attitudes towards the

continued

employment of principal officials over the transfer of sovereignty is not decisive. on the one hand, they have made a number of reassuring statements, including recently: Chen Ziying went out of his way to make these during his visit to Hong Kong (9-13 December); in an interview with Peking China News Service published on 24 December Lu Ping also reiterated that there

would not be major changes in the civil service after 1997.

3.

The likelihood is that the Chinese have not fully thought the problem through or arrived at a clear overall

strategy.

1989.

The last discussions we held with them were in March Since then the introduction of the British Nationality Act (1990) in particular has introduced a major new element.

If the two sides cannot

Chinese

reach

a cooperative arrangement the risk losing all or most of the key civil servants, perhaps shortly before the handover, with potentially disastrous effects on the government of Hong Kong.

4.

On the basis of the limited definite information that

we have, it is reasonable to draw the following conclusions about Chinese objectives:

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