2
3. The Governor asked whether the Congress would likely favour an
Executive Order rather than legislation. Speaker Foley replied
that the President would have to take the lead but it did not
appear that the President would wish to be confrontational with
Congress. He also had his campaign commitments to live up to.
The President could not waffle and change his position again. In
the Congress, Senator Mitchell and Congresswoman Pelosi were very
influential and had been lobbying Congressmen strongly.
particular
Congresswoman
In
Pelosi had considerable Chinese
constituents influence behind her and she would remain difficult.
13
A.
Sir Renwick commented that if the legislative route was to be
taken, it would be important for some latitude to be given to the
Chinese to enable them to make improvements and for the conditions
to be imposed to be achievable by China. The Governor added that
it would be important to give the Chinese time to improve and not
to force the Chinese to dig in. The conditions, if necessary,
should be general and not specific, and should leave Hong Kong out.
Sir Renwick thought there was a lot of support in Senate for Hong
Kong and great care should be taken not to hurt Hong Kong's cause
in considering MFN. Hong Kong re-exports would be affected if MFN
was to be conditioned. Referring to the bill by Mitchell and
Pelosi, he said it would be difficult to distinguish between state
and privately owned enterprises in China.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.