TNAG-2605-FCO40-3793-Detention-of-Hong-Kong-residents-in-China-1992 — Page 33

布政司署

香港下亞厘畢道

本署檔號 Our Ref.:

PAO(C) 1/3371/86

來函檔號 Your Ref:

Matthew Henderson Esq.,

B.E.,

Peking.

73

GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT

LOWER ALBERT BOAD

سالام

HONG KONG

M Wordsow.

Your

18 August 1992

MB20/8

HICH 175/

ра,

کار در سال ۱۳۹۱

27/8.

Dear Matthew,

Many thanks for copying to me your minute of 11 August about the alleged abduction of a Hong Kong resident.

I agree it would be useful for you to have a clearer idea of when to take action on behalf of Hong Kong residents in trouble on the mainland. Unfortunately there are no clear guidelines. Each case is necessarily dealt with on its merits. The sources of information vary, the status of the individual varies, the nature of the incident varies. The only certainty is that the Chinese will claim that the individual concerned is "a Chinese citizen being dealt with according to Chinese law".

We do not take different action according to the national status of the individual. Our view is that if a person is a Hong Kong Permanent Resident then we should try to help. In some cases (e.g. Luo Haixing) we are dealing with a BDTC, in others (e.g. Tse Chun-wing) a COI holder. In Yao Yongzhan's case we provided considerable assistance even though he had not yet attained Permanent Resident status. In the case of Didi Yip, we took action in parallel with the Canadians (he was a HK Permanent Resident, but he worked for a Canadian company and had family connections there).

We do however discriminate between types of incident. If there is a political element in the form of counter revolutionary charges (Lau San-ching, Luo Haixing, Yao Yongzhan etc.), we have consistently taken the view that we have a duty to act. Such acitivities are not crimes in HK or in the UK. We also routinely approach the Chinese in cases where the Public Security Authorities appear to be intervening in