TNAG-2609-FCO40-3800-International-support-from-the-USA-regarding-the-future-of-H-1992 — Page 65

May 1992

Lord Glenarthur

House of Lords

PERSONAL

X

Thank you for your letter of 30 April about Senator McConnell's Bill on Hong Kong.

This is a subject which the Chinese have raised with us on a number of occasions recently. They are clearly quite exercised about it. The background is that after a visit to Hong Kong last year, Senator McConnell introduced a Bill designed to bolster Hong Kong's autonomy under the Joint Declaration (JD). We believe that Senator McConnell intends his Bill to be helpful to Hong Kong by showing US support for the JD. But the Chinese are suspicious that it is an attempt to internationalise the Hong Kong problem. They took particular issue with a requirement in the Bill for the US Administration to report to Congress on the

implementation of the JD.

We have told the Chinese Government that we had let the US Administration and Congress know of our concerns (primarily on the reporting requirement).

But there was a

limit on what we could do to influence the legislature of another sovereign state. In any case it was natural that those with a major economic stake in Hong Kong, such as the US, should take an interest in developments there. criticism of the Bill was likely to be counterproductive and could damage Chinese interests, for example fer renewal of

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