TNAG-2714-FCO40-3920-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1993 — Page 96

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Mr Ricketts

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Action Taken

FAC ENQUIRY INTO HONG KONG 1993

The

1. The FAC have not yet fully focussed on this enquiry. terms of reference have still to be decided, but I understand from PRU that the Committee is likely to want to look at Hong Kong in the context of southern China as a whole - and, possibly, to include Taiwan.

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Timing of the visit

Likely to be in the second half of October.

The Committee want to pay their visit to the Far East in the last week of the summer recess and the first week of the new session. (Not possible to say exactly when this will be until much nearer the time possibly July).

Visit to Peking

We have heard no more about this since our Telno 187 to Peking at the end of last month.

- As we said then, the FAC are virtually certain to want to include Peking.

- We agreed we would need to consult Ministers about the handling of such a visit in the light of the state of our relations with China at the time.

Taking of evidence

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We submitted an FCO memorandum to the FAC on 31 March.

The Clerk of the Committee has since asked for an evidence session with Mr Goodlad before the summer recess. A 2-hour session with the Minister has been provisionally booked between 10.30am and 12.30pm on Wednesday, 14 July.

K. Sanders

KAM Saunders

Hong Kong Department

WH 311 270 3544

15 April 1993

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