TNAG-2733-FCO40-3939-Future-of-Hong-Kong-constitutional-development-1993 — Page 120

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

SECRET 高度機密

2

(d)

(e)

(f)

On a possible visit by S of S to Peking, Mr.

Ricketts said that S of S must have something

new to say to produce the impetus. The Governor

said that if the Chinese had shown their ideas

at that time, S of S could put forward our response to those ideas. Clearly, S of S would

want to wait until after the sixth round before

making a decision. Mr. Ricketts said that Sir

Robin could probably mention the possibility of

such a visit to the Chinese informally.

that the course

On the draft OPD (K) paper, the Governor said

of action proposed therein was

precisely what we had tried to avoid during this

time. As our current tactics seemed to be

edging the Chinese to put forward their specific

ideas, any move on one part would likely to be

pocketed by the Chinese.

The draft had

under-estimated the strength of our own position

and the resilience of public support for our

October package. There should also be an

assessment of the consequences of a breakdown of

talks,

and

also

time-constraints were.

paper should recommend

present strategy.

Mr.

move

of

a

on

what

the

real

He would think that the

that we maintained our

Ricketts said that the draft attempted to

into unchartered waters and the formulation

"conditional offer" was rather meant to be

approach to indicate our initial willingness to look at specific ideas, bearing in mind that we might now be near the end-game.

an

G.F. 316

SECRET #2

Page 120Page 121

Comments

Approved members can add comments, bookmarks, and private notes.

No comments yet.

Private Research Note

Private notes are available after approval.