CALL ON MR GOODLAD BY MR ROBERT PARRY MP:
10 JUNE
1. Mr Parry wanted to give Mr Goodlad an account of his visit to Peking. He also wanted again to express his thanks for the action taken by the FCO and the Ambassador in Peking to secure his release. He had not intended his visit to be the source of any embarrassment for the British Government. His interest in China stemmed from the large Chinese community in his constituency. He had visited China and Hong Kong many times and hoped that the incident on his last trip would not rule out a visa for trips in the future.
2. In Peking he and his European colleagues had met the Chinese cquivalent of the TUC General Secretary. They had raised various matters under the ILO Conventions and the cases of some well known Chinese trade union dissidents They had tried to see officials in the Ministry of Public
Security and in the Ministry of Justice, but without
success.
3.
They had earlier agreed that if the Chinese refused to see them officially they would go ahead with their Tiananmen Square protest. When they had unfurled the banner a number of Chinese in the Square had expressed support. But within a matter of minutes security guards had appeared, bundled them into a bus and took them to a police building in the Forbidden City. They were kept there for some 6 hours and given a meal before being put on a plane to Hong Kong the following morning. They had not been maltreated by the Chinese.
Mr Parry had written to the Chinese Ambassador requesting a meeting to discuss the trip. The Embassy had offered a meeting with a First Secretary.
He was
4. Mr Parry said that a particular interest was in religious rights, both in China and in Hong Kong. pleased that during his visit to Peking last year the Prime Minister had raised some issues that he had drawn to the
Prime Minister's attention. He appreciated the Prime Minister's actions on human rights matters in China. Mr
Goodlad stressed that human rights were a central feature of our dealings with China and figured in all Ministerial di scussions with the Chinese. At the suggestion of the Prime Minister, Sir Geoffrey Howe would be leading a human rights mission to China in the late autumn. We saw this as the next step in the dialogue with the Chinese. We hoped the mission would focus on specific areas of concern, eg Chinese legal procedures.
JH2 AAK
Mr Gummer had handed over a list
HKD Disti
* 6 JUN 1992
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