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the State Council and met some of his classmates working in Peking. He
was told in private by a middle-ranking cadre working in the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs that the CPC Central Committee has included the Hong Kong-
Macau issue in its agenda and regards it as one of the important missions
of the eighties and aims at making a good job of this work.
Ye Jianying, Deng Xiaoping and Li Xiannian had allegedly mentioned on New
Year's eve Chou's last words on the Hong Kong-Macau issue, stressing that
"the Hong Kong-Macau issue is a special job which calls for caution and
delicacy. It must be coupled with a firm leading group and-the-sychological
preparation for a protracted warfare. It should be combined with the anti-
hegemonist and anti-imperialist struggle. There is no harm in going about
this job more flexibly. The Hong Kong-Macau issue should be settled together
with the Taiwan issue. F!
Chou En-lai has passed away for four years. The reiteration by Chinese
leaders of his directives on the work on Hong Kong and Macau provides a
guiding principle in the new situation of the 80s. This indicates that
China's Central Government is attaching great importance to the work on
Hong Kong and Macau. Chou En-lai has pointed out that the Hong Kong-Macau
issue should be settled together with the Taiwan issue. This viewpoint
is very farsighted. This is to say that Hong Kong and Macau are special,
but the Hong Kong-Macau issue is not a separate localised problem. It
involves the entire international anti-hegemonist and anti-imperialist
strategy. At the same time it must be settled together with the Taiwan
issue. This is the broad and long-term view of a politician. Chou's
diplomatic foresight and strategy are much better than Mao Tse-tung's.
It seems that Mao has not mentioned the Hong Kong issue during his life-
time.
·
/Chous has
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