TNAG-2989-FCO40-3575-Future-of-Hong-Kong-constitutional-development-talks-betwee-1992 — Page 52

CONFIDENTIAL

Foreign & Commonwealth

Office

WITH

16 November 1992

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London SW1A 2AH

Constit. Derpt

17/1

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M. Sanke 17/x1 Miss Sampoers

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HONG KONG : CALL ON THE PRIME MINISTER BY SIR PERCY CRADOCK

Sir Percy Cradock will call privately on the Prime Minister on 17 November.

Sir Percy is likely to argue that we face a serious crisis with China over Hong Kong; that the Chinese regard us as having breached the agreement in the Joint Declaration on closer cooperation with them in the final years of the transition; and that they will not back down. He believes that we face a long drawn out Chinese campaign to disrupt the 1995 Legislative Council (LegCo) elections, and that the Chinese will soon begin making preparations for alternative arrangements in 1997. He may suggest that we need to find a way of resuming private dialogue with the Chinese on these arrangements, and that this would in practice mean being willing to change them.

The Prime Minister might say:

We do not underestimate the strength of the Chinese reaction. Ministers had no illusions about the difficulties when they took a collective decision to endorse the Governor's constitutional proposals;

We recognise that the Chinese feel they should have been consulted privately first. But it was politically impossible for the Governor to do that on an issue of this importance before explaining his thinking to the people of Hong Kong;

We have not breached the agreement in the Joint Declaration. We have all along offered them dialogue. It is the Chinese political stance which is causing difficulty.

CONFIDENTIAL