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FROM: CO Hum
DATE: 2 July 1992
PS/Mr Patten
CC:
Mr Ricketts, HKD Mr Davies, FED
PS/Mr Goodlad
LUNCH WITH AMBASSADOR MA YUZHEN
1. Ambassador Ma Yuzhen gave a small lunch today, to say goodbye to Mr Burns and to welcome me. Conversation was along very predictable lines, covering among other things the airport and constitutional development in Hong Kong. Since I understand that the Minister and Mr Patten will be Ambassador Ma's guests this evening, there are one or two points I should note.
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2. First, Ambassador Ma said he hoped that in future there could be a greater degree of informal contact between the Chinese Embassy and FCO officials, especially on Hong Kong. would be a help if matters could be talked over apart from the formal, recorded contacts. Perhaps I could have regular lunches with his Minister-Counsellor. I welcomed this. I understand that over the months we have been urging Ambassador Ma to go in for more of this sort of informal contact. Mr Goodlad may wish to say how much he welcomes the Ambassador's suggestion and how happy officials are to step up their informal contacts with the Chinese Embassy.
3. Second, Ambassador Ma fished for information on when we would propose dates for the visit to London by Vice Premier Zhu Rongji, who his host would be and whether he would meet the Prime Minister. He said he hoped that Vice Minister Jiang could be given this news at the talks on 6 July. I hedged. I do not see any particular need to be forthcoming with this information as yet, although we must obviously keep the principle of the visit in play.
4. Third, Ambassador Ma asked me directly whether I thought Mr Patten would bring Mr Martin Lee onto ExCo. I said he should ask Mr Patten: but my impression was that Mr Patten wished to spend some time consulting in Hong Kong before he made up his mind. For the rest, we agreed fervently that the temperature of exchanges between our two governments over Hong Kong should be lowered, and that we should listen to what each other said rather than the speculation of Hong Kong and the media.
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CO Hum
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