TNAG-2916-FCO40-4191-International-support-from-European-countries-regarding-the--1993 — Page 98

CONFIDENTIAL

59

047270 MDHOAN 0808

Heux

RECEWED

021

15 NOV 1993

DESK OFFICES

TOP COPY QDIST?

Ms Damer Jones

CONFIDENTIAL

FM FCO

TO IMMEDIATE TOKYO

TELNO 614

OF 111116Z NOVEMBER 93

INDE/

AND TO IMMEDIATE WASHINGTON

INFO IMMEDIATE HONG KONG

for pa

ра

HONG KONG: INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT

1.

Please pass the following message from Sir J Coles to

Ikeda (Director-General for Asia) in advance of the APEC meeting Seattle; Washington should pass the same message, appropriately tailored, to Winston Lord.

Message begins:

I am glad that you were able to spare the time to come to Chevening last month and hope that you found our discussion there as worthwhile as I did. I was grateful for your willingness to to be helpful with the Chinese over Hong Kong when the opportunity arose - we have valued your support in the past.

We agreed to keep in close touch in advance of of the APEC meeting in Seattle which President Jiang Zemin will be attending. I therefore wanted to bring you up-to-date with developments. In recent weeks, there have been some signs of movement from the Chinese side. In particular, the prospect has opened up that we may be able to reach an interim agreement in the next few weeks, dealing with the arrangements for the District Board and Municipal Council elections (September 1994 and March 1995 respectively) and the more immediate issues relating to the Legislative Council elections. If we can achieve that, it would enable us to start the legislative process in Hong Kong and would give us a little more time (but not much) to concentrate on the more difficult Legislative Council issues, in particular the Functional Constituencies, the Election Committee and the through train. On these the gap remains wide and we shall need a good deal of further flexibility from the Chinese side if we are to reach an agreement. We are frankly not yet clear whether the Chinese Leadership are willing to accept arrangements for the Legislative Council elections which are open and fair, and not subject to manipulation from Peking.

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