CONFIDENTIAL
in the
布政司署
港下亞·厘畢道
words
*** OUR Ref.: TS 7/1162/46 V
This
is
alreed
* YOUR REF.:
160
GOVERNment SECRETARIAT
1973 paper.
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
21 December, 1977
in Theme Again - Ret- the
HKK Oud/sus/L.
R C Samuel Esq
Far Eastern Department'?
F CO
Cab Office N Starzy
Jein 8.25/12
Chaffee Geer
No 6 & ir Thompson; to see 0.5.
THE FUTURE OF HONG KONG
N Styout
tee
Since I last wrote on 2 December about comments from official and semi-official Chinese. sources on the future of Hong Kong, there has been yet another confidence- building remark.
2.
On the occasion of the opening of a large new branch of China Products Company (the main outlet for Chinese goods in Hong Kong) the head of the company, Mr Chang Cheng (who is also the Deputy General Manager of China Resources and travels on a CPG passport) gave an impromptu press conference. The journalists concerned were mostly from the left-wing press, but also apparently included a reporter from the English-language South China Morning Post. According to this reporter, Mr Chang commented directly on the Chinese attitude towards Hong Kong's future. His key phrase in this connection was as follows:-
3.
"Hong Kong is a problem left over from history and we are not eager to tackle it. It requires a long
It is still period of time to deal with the problem. too early to say how long this will take but it will depend on the situation in South-East Asia and in the world. As it stands, Hong Kong is of interest to both China and Britain and both sides need a long period of consideration to decide what is to be done about it."
The
According to the account given in the South China Morning Post, Mr Chang repeated his point about the need for a long period of consideration four separate times. Post carried the story on the front page of its 19 December edition with a banner headline: "China spells it out five times: Status Quo of Hong Kong stays" (copies enclosed for yourself, Research Department and Peking only).
4.
Such a message is of course good for confidence and is likely to be an encouragement to potential investors.
/contd..
.
CONFIDENTIAL