CONFIDENTIAL
49-341/2
1993
013711
DLIAN
37
CONFIDENTIAL
FM PEKING
TO IMMEDIATE HONG KONG
TELNO 55
OF 290914Z OCTOBER 93
INFO ROUTINE FCO
HONG KONG: EX-CHINA VIETNAMESE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: CLEARANCE OF REPATRIATION FLIGHTS
1.
First Secretary took action as requested in APA (G)'s faxes of 25 and 26 October with Wang Guisheng (Deputy Director, HKMAO, MFA) and with Xu Liugen (Director, Office for Indo-Chinese Refugees, Ministry of Civil Affairs). Wang undertook to inform the "relevant department" of our concern but could offer no immediate help himself. Xu was more forthcoming.
2.
Xu indicated that his office were still working on getting permission for the second repatriation flight to land at Haikou airport. When pressed, he said that there was a "very high probability of gaining consent", that the final word had not yet been given but that it would be given very soon. As for Nanning, he finally advised us to inform Hong Kong that they should not make any arrangements with their charterer for flights to Nanning. added that he would very much like to stick to the original agreement for Guangxi, ie by ship. We deployed the arguments against this in second fax/UR but he remained unconvinced.
He
3. Xu also commented in passing that Hong Kong should not unilaterally decide dates for future repatriations (perhaps referring to any alternative arrangements which might have to be made for the Nanning group).
COMMENT
4.
Xu was initially reluctant to discuss this matter with the Embassy on the grounds that there was a special channel set up in Hong Kong for precisely this purpose and that that was the correct way to pursue these matters. He commented that it was not procedurally correct for him to give the Embassy details of the Chinese side's thinking before he had informed his colleagues in Hong Kong so that they could inform Ashton (DPA) in the usual way. He said that he would be giving the formal decision to the Chinese side in Hong Kong very soon and stressed that we should wait to
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