TNAG-2921-FCO40-4196-Visits-and-proposed-visits-by-Alastair-Goodlad--Minister-of--1993 — Page 125

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- 2 NOV 1993

INUL

CONFIDENTIAL

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From:

Mr Goodlad

Date:

21 October 1993

CC:

FCO Ministers

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Secretary of State

MY VISIT TO HONG KONG:

1.

Maren Hanks for

your driefs, which earned high marks.

PS/PUS

Sir John Coles

Mr Appleyard

Mr Hum

Mr Ricketts, HKD

Mr Fry, FED

Mr Wilkinson, Planners Ms Everett, News Dept Special Advisers PS/Governor, Hong Kong Mr H Davies, UKREP,

JLG, Hong Kong Mr Cornish, SBTC,

Hong Kong

11 - 12 OCTOBER 1993

I recently returned from my fourth visit to Hong Kong as Minister of State, a visit which fell between your meeting with Qian Qichen and the Governor's annual LegCo address on the one hand, and the planned OPD (K) meeting on the other. It also coincided with the 13th round of talks with China in Peking.

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2. The Governor and his team were in very good heart. discussed with them how their thinking is developing on the talks and on the handling of LegCo in the event of a breakdown. Much of the discussion has been subsumed in or overtaken by the telegrams which you will have seen in the past few days. A substantial move by China before OPD(K) now seems unlikely. It will be desirable to hold one further round afterwards to demonstrate our reasonableness and give the Chinese side one last chance. We shall then need to decide whether to proceed with legislation and if so on what basis the original package announced last year; a diluted version incorporating our subsequent compromises, or something which we guess might be acceptable to China. Any diluted version of the original proposals risks further amendment; but our proposals in their original form would be less likely to survive the transition in 1997. We should also try to avoid giving LegCo any excuse to throw draft legislation straight back at us and ask us to re-approach the Chinese side. So far we have a good story to tell: we are ready to set this out in detail in a White Paper if the talks break down. I believe we should seek to avoid and be held ! responsible for breaking off talks: even if we are obliged

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FOI EXEMPTION NO....2.7.(1), 40(2)