TNAG-2733-FCO40-3939-Future-of-Hong-Kong-constitutional-development-1993 — Page 13

CONFIDENTIAL

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CONFIDENTIAL

FM FCO

TO IMMEDIATE GUIDANCE

R&

TELNO 41

1

178

OF 170946Z NOVEMBER 93

AND TO IMMEDIATE WASHINGTON EC POSTS, TOKYO, OTTAWA AND TO IMMEDIATE CANBERRA WELLINGTON, NEW DELHI AND TO IMMEDIATE ISLAMABA, MANILA, SINGAPORE-

AND TO IMMEDIATE KUALA LUMPUR, BANGKOK, SEOUL, JAKARTA

AND TO IMMEDIATE BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, MOSCOW

AND TO IMMEDIATE UKMIS NEW YORK, HOLY SEE, GIBRALTAR

AND TO IMMEDIATE UKDEL STRASBOURG, CAIRO

INFO IMMEDIATE HONG KONG, BTC HONG KONG, PEKING

INFO IMMEDIATE UKREP JLG HONG KONG

10/2/1

(May's file)

HONG KONG: TALKS WITH CHINA ABOUT ELECTORAL

ARRANGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION (UNCLASSIFIED)

4

1 Our Guidance telno 36 reported on rounds 10-13 of the talks, during which minimal progress was made, and on the meeting: between the Secretary of State and Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen in New York on 1 October. We have now had two more rounds of talks, and a meeting of Ministers, attended by the Governor of Hong kong, was held on 10 November to take stock of the situation.

2.

LINE TO TAKE (UNCLASSIFIED)

(i) Priority task now is to focus on details of first-stage agreement. Have put our ideas to the Chinese side. Hope we can work together to produce early agreement on this. Will buy us a Little time, but not much. Legislation on the urgent issues must be put forward soon - weeks rather than months.

(11) Also some progress made on through train, despite legal and procedural difficulties. key to this is that criteria for riding through train must be clear, objective and forward-looking, le not applied to past actions and statements.

(iii) still a large gap between the two sides on important

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