SECRET
布政司署
香港下亞畢道
本署檔號 OUR REF.:
SCR 1/4731/49
* Your Ref.:
R
Hong Kong & General Department
F/C O
T McLaren Esq
lees
Robin,
NCNA
80
GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
7 July, 1978
Mr Thompson
b.u. to Nowen o.r.
7/Vi
HKK 020/1
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY MO. 51
2 8 JUL 1978
DEAK OFFICER
INDEX
No
PA
REGISTRY
Action Ten
R
Sex 83
ניי תוֹ רויו
We are about to get a new Director of the local branch of NCNA. The first we heard officially of this was a telegram from the embassy in Peking on 23 June saying that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had requested a visa for Wang K'uang (in Cantonese Wong Hong, 3769-0652) to come to Hong Kong as Director and that he was due to leave Peking for Hong Kong on 6 July. This confirmed rumours we had heard through various channels that Wang was due to come to Hong Kong in a senior position.
2.
Wang K'uang is a 60-year old Cantonese who was in Yenan as NCNA correspondent from 1942-49. He then worked in Kwangtung in various propaganda, cultural and publicity organisations including the post of Director of the Propaganda Department of the Party's Central-South Bureau from 1962-66. In October 1966 he was disgraced and removed from all his posts, having been accused of shielding revisionists (including his wife) and opposing the Great Leap Forward. So far as we know, Wang was not rehabilitated until early this year when he became Director of the State Publications Bureau, an organisation coming directly under the State Council, which gives him, according to the local NCNA, a rank equivalent to that of a Vice Minister in an ordinary ministry. He is thus the most senior cadre ever to be appointed to Hong Kong. I am attaching a biographical note giving all the details we have been able to put together here. I would be very grateful for anything Research Department or others can add.
3.
When we first picked up the rumours that Wang might be coming here in a senior position, I was slightly concerned lest the Chinese were about to invent a new appointment to fit his rank. The present Director, Li Chu- sheng, has only held that post since December last year, having been Deputy since 1973. It seemed unlikely that he would be removed so soon. Although it is clear that there
SECRET
/contd..
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