TNAG-2468-FCO40-3592-Most-favoured-nation-status-for-China-Hong-Kong-interests-1992 — Page 195

The McConnell Bill

CONFIDENTIAL

The McConnell Bill on US/Hong Kong relations seeks to

harness congressional interest in Hong Kong in a way that is

meant to be helpful, bolstering Hong Kong's autonomy under

the Joint Declaration. The Chinese look at it as

interference, and have urged us to speak out against the

Bill. A requirement for annual reports on implementation of the Joint Declaration has now been dropped and replaced by a call for less frequent reports on conditions in Hong Kong of

interest to the US. We welcome this change to the Bill,

about which we had approached the Administration, but have

judging that this not sought generally to influence the debate, because of the would be counterproductive. Chinese interest and their suspicions of our role. If

Secretary Baker raises this, the Prime Minister could say:

- We appreciate the strong support which the US Administration has consistently given to the arrangements

for Hong Kong's future and the Joint Declaration.

- We have told the Chinese that any public statements

unhely fur

against the Bill could be counterproductive, eg in the MFN context. We have urged them to see this in perspective. But they remain very sensitive to "internationalisation" of

the Hong Kong question and suspect that we may be encouraging this.

ALEABE/2

CONFIDENTIAL

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