TNAG-2210-FCO40-3170-Future-of-Hong-Kong-political-parties-1991 — Page 42

1196 IU

HUNG KUNG

12:09

11:30

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

+ 2EB 537 12U4

GOVERNMENT HUUSE

. 06-JUN-1991

return home voluntarily, yet since this currently does not seem

to be likely, Hong Kong must inevitably implement a policy of

with accordance

the CRA

mandatory

repatriation

international law.

in

and

continues to be

This critical aspect of the CPA, however, blocked by the United States Government. As I discovered on my A

trip to the United States last year, the U.S. Government and the

public at large are very ignorant of the true situation in Hong Kong, and part of the blame for this must fall on the lackluster and reluctant efforts of the British Embassy in Washington. It emed that In every audience I spoke to the first two questions

Swanys were "what do you think will happen after 1997?" and "why are the peoplè 01 nung kong sending back boat people from vietnam?"

-seemed

to

During my trip to the USA last year, I made clear

audiences how Hong Kong has taken in over 170,000 boat people in

the last 12 years and how no boat has ever been turned away.

Just as important, the Americans must be made to realize that the nature OF boat people arriving in Hong Kong Mas changed

fundamentally since 1979. While at the outset of the crisis,

almost all the boat people were either ethnically Chinese or from

South Vietnam, the vast majority of boat people in the camps

today are vietnamese from North Vietnam.

The United States does not recognise these North Vietnamese to be rezugees and hence will not accept them for resettlement. At the same time, the U.S. will neither allow for their mandatory