CONFIDENTIAL
and realism to continue.
A resurgence of radical policies
certainly cannot be ruled out; but this seems unlikely at
present. It is much more difficult to predict the course of
events after Mao dies. The advent of a more flexible and
outward-looking leadership night improve the day-to-day
working relationship between China and the Colony. very long run it is highly doubtful whether any Chinese Communist leadership would be prepared to contemplate a further
extension of the lease for the New Territories beyond 1997.
But in the
Far Eastern Department
October 1970
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CONFIDENTIAL