These issues are yet to be sorted out by the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group

These issues are yet to be sorted out by the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group.. TIM MCGIRK

New Delhi
In some corners of India, mothers are forced by poverty to kill their newborn daughters. Some suffocate them or daub poisonous oleander on their tongues. Still to be clarified is the future status of Hong Kong- born ethnic minorities, and Hong Kong Chinese holders of foreign passports, especially if they are living abroad. But his attempts to persuade Peking to rethink its plans to dismantle the colony’s elected Legislative Council, fell as expected, on deaf ears.

“Sadly, but not surprisingly, [Li Peng] repeated the known Chinese position with regard to Legco,” said the Foreign Secretary.Mr Rifkind also put great emphasis on the sensitivity of China’s future choice of chief executive to take over on 1 July 1997 in Hong Kong. The candidate, who must be a Hong Kong person, should “be someone who commands the support and respect of the civil service in Hong Kong and of the people of the territory,” he said.On the question of right of abode, Mr Rifkind said on Tuesday that his Chinese counterpart had confirmed that “all those persons with permanent resident status who are now in HK will continue to have resident status after 1997″.However, British officials admitted yesterday that the query had been raised in the context of the future status of long-stay expatriate businessmen in Hong Kong. So long as Hong Kong remains a good trade and investment centre, those people who leave will return.”The steady improvement in Sino-British relations has appeared to ease the atmosphere for negotiations over Hong Kong during Mr Rifkind’s three- day visit. Mr Li was quoted as saying Peking “would not send a single official to take up office” in Hong Kong and “will not take away a single penny of Hong Kong’s money” after the territory reverts to mainland rule on 30 June 1997.

But the positive effect of reiterating existing Chinese commitments was clouded by a more ambiguous comment: “If people worry about Hong Kong’s future, it does not matter. “Crucial to that confidence will, of course, be their belief that the autonomy of Hong Kong provided for in the ‘two systems, one country’ principle will be fully respected,” Mr Rifkind said.Last night’s national television news gave mixed signals of China’s reaction. We hope that over the weeks to come the Chinese side will reflect on this and that we can turn to a proper dialogue which is very much in the interests of the people of Hong Kong.”Asked for evidence that confidence was declining in the colony, the officials cited opinion polls and applications for emigration to other countries “up 50, 60, 70 per cent”.Mr Rifkind yesterday held a meeting with China’s Prime Minister, Li Peng, in which he stressed that improving morale was essential. Mr Rifkind said he told his Chinese counterpart, Qian Qichen, on Tuesday that “it was highly desirable for the British and Chinese sides to have full dialogue incorporating all those who have an important role to play.

Mr Oleksy has come under increasing pressure to resign pending a full investigation.Few Western diplomats believe Mr Kwasniewski has any desire to see a restoration the old regime. As a spokesman in the German Chancellery put it: “We have had no sign that Mr Kwasniewski wants to look east rather than west … Joining [the EU and Nato] is very much in his own country’s interest.”. TERESA POOLE

Peking
STEVE VINESHong KongChina must start talking again to Chris Patten, the Governor of Hong Kong, if it wants to restore the tattered confidence of the colony’s people before next year’s transfer of sovereignty, the Foreign Secretary, Malcolm Rifkind, is expected to tell President Jiang Zemin today.British officials in Peking said yesterday that the last few months had seen a “haemorrhaging of confidence” from people in Hong Kong and that resuming contact between Peking and Mr Patten would have a direct impact on morale in the colony.Mr Patten has been sidelined by Peking since 1992 when he unveiled his electoral reforms for the colony. Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who last year said an EU membership treaty for Poland could be ready by 2000, offered similar assurances during earlier talks.Despite his Italian suits, suave manner and clear intelligence, Mr Kwasniewski, 41, is one of many East European leaders with links to the region’s former Communist regimes. His past played a key role in last year’s bitter presidential election; Mr Walesa, the man he narrowly defeated, said former Communists, like leopards, cannot change their spots.In the three-and-a-half weeks he has been President, Mr Kwasniewski has had to confront embarrassing allegations that Jozef Oleksy, the Prime Minister and a fellow former Communist, had for many years co-operated with an agent from the KGB. Mr Kwasniewski, who flew on to deliver the same message in Paris, said the choice of Germany and France as his first official ports of call was intended as a “symbolic statement”.

He spoke of the Paris-Berlin-Warsaw axis as the “backbone of Europe”.His message was well received by his German hosts, who, in addition to seeking better relations with Poland, have always been the most ardent supporters of the expansion of Nato and the EU into Central and Eastern Europe.At a dinner for Mr Kwasniewski on Tuesday, President Roman Herzog of Germany said Poland could depend on Germany’s continuing support in its bid to “return to Europe”. ADRIAN BRIDGE

Central Europe Correspondent
Poland’s new President, Aleksander Kwasniewski, yesterday tried to shake off his Communist past by saying he planned to lead his country towards Nato and the European Union.Speaking in Berlin on the second day of his first official trip abroad, he said early membership of the two bodies remained key foreign-policy goals – as they had under his anti-Communist predecessor, Lech Walesa. That objective, Mr Belloch said, lay behind Eta’s stepped-up bombing campaign before Christmas.. All democratic parties in the Basque country meet today to plan an anti-terrorist counter-offensive.Eta is understood to feel well- placed to force the government, or its successor, to the negotiating table. The Interior Minister, Juan Alberto Belloch, warned this week that the group planned assassination attempts throughout the election campaign. He said a conservative government would provoke “social chaos”.The PP is preparing to hammer the Socialists on corruption scandals that have come to light in recent years, and on the illegal use in the early Eighties of undercover anti-terrorist squads – known as Gal – to combat Eta Basque separatists.A disaffected former Socialist leader in the Basque country, Ricardo Garcia Damborenea, told the Supreme Court last week that he had attended a meeting in a hotel near Madrid in 1983 with Jose Barrionuevo, then Interior Minister, together with the state security chief and Socialist leaders in the Basque country, at which the anti-Eta campaign – including the kidnapping of Eta suspects in France – was organised.Eta continues to cast a shadow.