The World - News from July 31, 1989

Britain said it will resume talks with China in September over the future of Hong Kong, a British colony. The talks will be the first formal contact between the two nations since China’s bloody crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in early June. The plans were announced after a meeting between British Foreign Secretary John Major and his Chinese counterpart, Qian Qichen, in Paris where the two are attending an international peace conference on Cambodia. A Foreign Office spokesman said Major and Qian agreed that a joint liaison group working out details for handing the colony over to China in 1997 will meet in London at the end of September. Many of Hong Kong’s 5.7 million residents have become fearful about their future since China began its crackdown.