TNAG-2469-FCO40-3593-Most-favoured-nation-status-for-China-Hong-Kong-interests-1992 — Page 61

ZVENTILAT

ستاره ان الاها

JLU

CONFIDENTIAL

香港總督府

HAB 091/2

GOVERNMENT HOUSE HONG KONG

134

BY FAX

Dear Peter,

32

ད་འབ

4 December 1992

China/Hong Kong: MFN Status

127

Mr Whitney food! I've revised the

Thank you for your letter of 1 December, and for PS letter

sending me a copy of the letter from No.10 recording a discussion between the Prime Minister and the American Ambassador and of your draft Private Secretary reply.

I have shown these papers to the Governor, and he has confirmed that the American Ambassador got the point wrong as you must have suspected, but were too polite to say! What the Governor actually said to him was that any suggestion of linking conditionality of China's MFN status to Hong Kong would be politically maladroit, but that concern about MFN might affect how hard China pushed matters in Hong Kong. The Governor also said that he would be spending a considerable amount of time in 1993 lobbying against attaching conditionality to MFN and against any mention of Hong Kong in this context. Indeed he has already stated this exercise this week with a group of Congressmen and Congresswomen who have been visiting Hong Kong. The Governor will write to the American Ambassador to put the record straight.

I suggest that in the draft Private Secretary letter, you should make it clear that Ambassador Seitz misrepresented the Governor. You could then, if you wish, associate the Governor with the views attributed to the Foreign Secretary thereafter.

My only other, very minor, comment is that in ii) the word "would" in the second line might perhaps be replaced by "could", The Governor is always a little wary of attributing too great precision to forecasts of this type.

Mr. P. F. Ricketts

Head, Hong Kong Dept.

FCO

Yours aver

Richer

(R.J.F. Hoare) Private Secretary

e Sidmitted

CONFIDENTIAL