TNAG-2693-FCO40-3896-Meetings-and-calls-on-Alastair-Goodlad--Minister-of-State-fo-1993 — Page 64

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the NSC in exchanges with the Royal Society. Mr Lennox-Boyd asked how the Society planned to encourage greater interest. He

also suggested that the Royal Society might have fruitful discussions with the Britain/China Centre on the development of

links with Taiwan.

12. Turning to Hong Kong, Mr Lennox-Boyd urged that the Royal

Society build rather than burn bridges before 1997. Britain

would continue to have major interests in Hong Kong after that......

year: its Consulate General'would be a very important mission

indeed. Sadly, proposals for constitutional reform in Hong Kong

had been rejected by the Chinese Government. But we placed great : importance in the resumption of a constructive dialogue with that

Government. The situation at the moment was one of talks about -

talks about talks.

13. Sir Michael Atiyah reported on his visit to China and Hong Kong with Dr McLaren in April 1992. Relations were very good between the Society and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. That

Academy, a vast organisation, was gradually becoming more

flexible in response to changing economic circumstances in China.

He had raised the issue of human rights while he was in China he had found the Chinese Academy sympathetic. Academicians had

been especially concerned with the protection of the human rights

of those people who worked in their institutes. The Royal Society felt that the scientific community in Hong Kong should

establish an overall scientific association before 1997, or risk

being swallowed up by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. He had written to Mr Patten along these lines, and hoped Mr Patten was following up the idea. On Taiwan, he agreed that the time was right for the Royal Society to establish a foothold in that country.

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