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FM HONG KONG
TO PRIORITY FCO
TELNO 3878
OF 171049Z DECEMBER 9
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HICC 02013
- V dcu 1991
INFO ROUTINE PEKING, UKREP JLG HONG KONG
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OUR TELNO 2930: JOHN NI: CHINA TRAVEL SERVICE STAFF
1. SINCE SEPTEMBER, WHEN TUR WAS SENT, NI HAS CONTINUED TO ADOPT A HIGH PROFILE IN HONG KONG. NCNA REMAIN VERY SENSITIVE ABOUT HIS ACTIVITIES. WHEN THE HONG KONG GENERAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE RECENTLY ESTABLISHED A HONG KONG-TAIWAN BUSINESS COUNCIL, NCNA TOLD THE CHAMBER THAT WHILE THEY SUPPORTED THE BUSINESS COUNCIL THEY DID NOT WANT TO SEE NI ON IT. HE HAS BEEN OMITTED.
2.
3. WHEN NI ARRIVED HE BROUGHT WITH HIM TWO ASSOCIATES, CHIA TA- CHUNG (A FORMER NAVAL OFFICER) AND HSIEH KUO-SHUO (A FORMER KMT MAJOR-GENERAL). THEY HAVE BEEN WORKING UNDER HIM, TECHNICALLY ILLEGALLY, AS HIS POLITICAL ASSISTANTS. NOW BOTH HAVE APPLIED FOR WORK PERMITS IN ORDER TO REGULARISE THEIR POSITIONS.
4. WE LET CTS KNOW IN NOVEMBER 1990 (I.E. BEFORE NI'S ARRIVAL) THAT THEY COULD TRANSFER THREE JUNIOR STAFF TO THEIR HONG KONG OFFICE FROM TAIWAN. THEY HAVE FILLED ONE OF THESE SLOTS. TWO REMAIN UNFILLED. THEY MIGHT ARGUE THAT THEY ARE NOW TRYING TO FILL THEM. BUT CHIA AND HSIEH ARE NEITHER JUNIOR NOR LIKELY TO HAVE MUCH IF ANYTHING TO DO WITH CTS' NORMAL BUSINESS. THEIR MAIN TASKS, IF THEIR APPLICATIONS WERE APPROVED, WOULD NO DOUBT CONTINUE TO BE POLITICAL, AND MIGHT - GIVEN THEIR BACKGROUNDS EXTEND TO SECURITY AND INTELLIGENCE. WE THEREFORE PLAN TO REFUSE WORK PERMITS.
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5. IT IS POSSIBLE, ALTHOUGH PERHAPS A LITTLE UNLIKELY THAT THE TAIWANESE MIGHT MAKE A FUSS ABOUT THIS PUBLICLY. IF THEY DID, WE
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WOULD POINT OUT THAT THE TWO HAD BEEN WORKING HERE ILLEGALLY AND THAT SENIOR EX-MILITARY OFFICERS WERE HARDLY ESSENTIAL FOR A TRAVEL SERVICE.
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GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
[
布政司署
香港下亞厘畢道
DIEU
本署檔號 Our Ref.:
來函檔號 Your Ref.:
Nigel Cox Esq
Hong Kong Department
FCO
Jean trigel,
nkc020/3.
16 OCT 1991
2 October 1991
No Rigidan
(FED will reply)
ли
MI MA Dirks
17+ 18/10 Goil!
e.
ep to
UK/Taiwan
You may be interested in a conversation I had with the Canadian Commissioner here yesterday. He has just returned from a visit to Taiwan persuaded that the Canadian Government must pay closer attention not only to economic and commercial but also to political developments there. He told me he had been strongly impressed by the degree of progress over the last two years.
He thought we all might be caught napping by faster development towards proper democratic government (and move towards independence?) than any of us expect. He contended that the main reason for the general level of ignorance of Taiwan among western governments outside the commercial sphere was that none of us received any political reporting from Taipei. The Canadians now have three officers seconded from the DEA in their Taipei office, but none of them report on political developments in any detail. His own report on his visit is likely to recommend that this is changed.
You will not be surprised to know I agree with him. The received wisdom is that there is little or no prospect of the Taiwanese making a move towards independence in the foreseeable future. I suspect that the fact we have no source of political information on Taiwan is responsible for our failure carefully to re-examine this comfortable assumption.
Your
eva
Stephen
(S E Bradley)
Deputy Political Adviser
CC BTC (Mr P W Heap)
UKREP JLG (Mr A C Galsworthy)
FED, FCO (Mr H Ll Davies)
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