CONFIDENTIAL
TOP COPY MOLIAN
Q DIST?
41
152005 3485
CONFIDENTIAL
FM HONG KONG
TO PRIORITY FCO
pa
TELNO 1610
OF 141132Z OCTOBER 93
INFO PRIORITY PEKING, UKREP JLG HONG KONG
34111
R
993
Our telno 918: One way permits
Y
Tuken
Summary
1.
The Chinese tell us that they have since January been operating unilaterally an increased quota for the issue of one-way permits to Chinese nationals wishing to settle in Hong Kong.
We express dismay, and seek urgent assurances that the Chinese still accept that this scheme should operate on the basis of agreement. NCNA blame Lack of co-ordination rather than deliberate decision to go it alone. Our aim in response to this unwelcome and potentially serious development should be to get the scheme back on to an agreed footing.
Detail
2.
TUR reported our proposal to the NCNA in June that the agreed daily quota for one-way permits be increased from 75 to 100. We have ever since been pressing the NCNA for a response. In September, we also asked the NCNA to explain why the number of daily arrivals this year had been creeping up above the agreed quota, with an average that month of 94. (DPA's minute of 27 September, copied to HKD, FCO and Peking.)
3.
The NCNA have now responded. Li Hexie told Acting Political Adviser that the NCNA had just learnt that since January, the Chinese authorities had been issuing an additional 15 permits daily, to husbands or wives wishing to join spouses settled in Hong Kong. In June, they had introduced a further increase of 15, in this case for children wishing to join parents who were permanent residents in Hong Kong. They were now therefore issuing 105 permits a day.
4.
Stressing that this was an initial response, Ashton said that he was dismayed to hear this. The one-way permit scheme had operated successfully on an agreed basis since it began in 1982.
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