SECRET
67
香港總督官邸
Alaw ay Hkkoabl3.
Der Riten.
THE OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
FLAGSTAFF HOUSE
HONG KONG
See
Hkk ovoli
ALKANLU IN REGISTRY CO. 51
23 APR 19
INDEX
PA
April 1979
NO 877.4 A
VISIT TO CHINA AND THE LEASES
1.
You will by now have received the full records of the meetings with Deng Xiaoping, Huang Hua and Liao Chengzhi already covered in Peking telegrams 345 and 346. In this letter I would like to comment on the general atmosphere of the visit and draw preliminary conclusions on the question of the New Territories leases.
2. Throughout the whole visit to China it was very evidently the intention of the Chinese to impress us, in no particular order of priority, with:-
3.
(i) their willingness to deal with the Hong
Kong Government and their satisfaction with its performance;
(ii) their desire for increased trade, tourism
and investment, and for cooperation to achieve this;
(iii)
(iv)
their need for some time to come, and perhaps into the next century, of what they get out of Hong Kong with its present form of economy, and
realisation that in all this the maintenance of investor confidence played a major part.
Although we already believed all this to be the case, its statement in such unequivocal terms and at such high levels is new and reassuring, and produces to some extent a new and easier situation.
4. Apart from the level at which we were received in Peking, there were other things which are worth mentioning to you as possibly indicative of Chinese attitudes or reactions. We here have always regarded Liao Chengzhi
/ as
RJT McLaren Esq
Hong Kong and General Department
FCO
SECRET
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