 Major also met with US Secretary of State James Baker, where they primarily discussed the issue of Vietnamese boat people, and with Qian Qichen, Foreign Minister of China, becoming the first senior Western politician to meet with a Chinese official since the violent crackdown of pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square the previous month.Discussions focused primarily on the future of Hong Kong, which Britain was scheduled to hand over to China in 1997.Major spent most of a summer holiday that year in Spain conducting extensive background reading on foreign affairs and British foreign policy.