TNAG-2478-FCO40-3608-Trade-relations-between-Hong-Kong--the-UK-and-other-countrie-1992 — Page 56

5 May 1992

MJ Gifford Esq

ECD (E) FCO

By fax

Dear Mike

HK B 121/7

/

United Kingdom

Permanent Representation

To the European Communities

Kond-Point Robert Schuman 6

1040 Brussels

Telephone: (02) 287 82 11

Telcx: 24312

Facsimile: (02) 287 83 98

DID: (02)287

EC/HONG KONG: THE HINDLEY REPORT

1. I attended today a meeting of the Belgian-Hong Kong Society addressed by Michael Hindley MEP, rapporteur on the current EP draft report on economic and commercial relations between the EC and Hong Kong.

2. Hindley put up a good performance. He believed that Hong Kong still had everything going for it. He thought that excessive confidence on the part of Hong Kong residents had given way to excessive gloom post-Tiananmen. The balance of sentiment was now about right. The new Governor was a man with clout and profile. Personally, he would have liked consultation on the new Governor and would favour more rapid democratisation of Legco but he accepted that the Basic Law was the law. All friends of Hong Kong should strive to work within that framework. In response to a question about the recent International Jurists' Report, criticising UK performance on behalf of Hong Kong, Hindley made the same point again: the UK had negotiated the best deal that the then Administration had thought available. It was not helpful to cry over spilt milk.

3.

On the EC front, Hindley said that the Community must be ready to manage a strong relationship with Hong Kong post-1997. The Commission badly needed a delegation in Hong Kong, PRC should not think it presumptuous that the EC take an interest in its relations with Hong Kong. He defended this point politely, in the face of suggestions from the PRC Counsellor that "internationalisation" of the Hong Kong issue cut across the PRC approach of "one country, two systems".

4. Anthony Woo (HKETO) told me before the lunch that he had been warned by the PRC Embassy here that they disliked the Hindley Report, and that if Hindley spoke to it, they would be bound to

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