014/1 RECEIVED
1993
OTRY
REGISTRY
on Taken
RESTRICTED
Sex 56
From:
CO Hum
58
PS/Mr Goodlad
17/7
Date:
CC:
6 July 1993
Mr Figgis
Mr Fry, FED
Mr Ricketts, HKD Miss Brookes,
Asst Legal Adv Mr Beaumont,
Protocol Dept
DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS: UNPAID PARKING FINES
1.
The Minister has asked me to look at these papers. I have also discussed them with Mr Figgis.
2-
I share the misgivings of the Peking Embassy and FED about the action which is proposed with the Chinese Embassy. I appreciate that the Chinese are serious offenders, and should not be let off lightly. But I understand that in the case of the Chinese (unlike many of the others in the top ten) there has been no warning beyond a series of diplomatic circulars. We have not taken the intermediate step, as we have with certain other offenders, of calling in the Ambassador and giving him an oral dressing-down. It seems to me that we are taking quite a major step if we move directly to an explicit written threat of withdrawal of a diplomatic member of staff.
3.
It is also sadly the case that the Chinese regard the administrative harrassment of embassies in Peking as one of the regular tools in their diplomatic armoury. They will accordingly tend to see our action on the administrative question of parking fines as part of a broader diplomatic strategy, and react accordingly. It would be particularly unfortunate if we were to get involved in a round of diplomatic tit-for-tat which ended in a Chinese request for a member of the British Embassy in Peking (perhaps Chinese speaking, with important responsibilities) to be withdrawn.
4.
Against this background I have discussed with Mr Figgis a slightly more phased approach, which would be applied without differentiation to all the top ten offenders. The last sentence of the third paragraph of the draft letter would be amended to read as follows:
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