TNAG-2623-FCO40-3814-Visits-by-Alastair-Goodlad--Minister-of-State-for-Foreign-an-1992 — Page 6

HKD 026/13

133

CONFIDENTIAL

9/10

Ma Morins

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Miss Sande No 124.0

From:

Date :

CC :

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Private Secretary f

MR GOODLAD'S TRAVEL PLANS

1.

Po

1712

PS/Mr Goodlad

8 October 1992

PS/Ministers

Sir J Coles

Mr Hum

Mr Ricketts, HKD

Mr Davies,

FED

Protocol Dept News Dept

Special Advisers

Mr Goodlad would be grateful for the Secretary of State's agreement in principle to his visiting China (for the first time since taking up this appointment) and Hong Kong from 2 or 3 to 11 January.

China

2. Sir R McLaren would welcome a visit at that time. We know of no reason why the timing should be inconvenient for the Chinese. It would take place about 12 months after Lord Caithness' last visit; 6 months after Vice Foreign Minister Jiang Enzhu's (the likely host) visit to London; and roughly half-way between the 6 monthly Foreign Minister meetings.

3.

The minimum time for a sensible visit to Peking is 2 days (round of talks with Jiang Enzhu; meeting with Lu Ping; courtesy calls on Foreign Minister and Vice Premier; possible follow-up to Mr Heseltine's October CBTG mission, and essential hospitality). This would be a good opportunity for exchanges with the Chinese leaders on Hong Kong constitutional issues once the dust has settled a little- and the airport (though detailed negotiation will rightly continue through the Governor/Lu Ping channel).

4. But the Minister would also hope to spend up to 3 days outside the capital. The first choice would be Canton, (Guangdong Province) where he would hope to see something of the economic and commercial dynamism of southern China and the extent to which this is fuelled by Hong Kong. We have a number of specific commercial interests in the area (in particular the Canton metro project, which is coming to a head). We are currently examining the case for

CONFIDENTIAL