On January 8, 1980, the long Kong and Macau Work Group" was formally
inaugurated. It is said that the Director is a former veteran cadre
•
of the Foreign Affairs Office. He is a member of the Central Committee,
experienced in working in the white area and was once an assistant to
Chou En-lai. Furthermore, a former high-ranking military officer from
the Internal Liaison Department of the CFC Central Committee has been
appointed as the group's political adviser, With such a leading
body, the work group does carry weight.
Talking on Work on Hong Kong and Macau, Deng Xiaoping Says amewar of
New Territories Lease is Impossible
Work on Hong Kong and Macau in the 1980s has entered into a new era.
Approval has been given for Guangdong and Fujian Provinces in the neighbour-
hood of Hong Kong to be designated as special zones. This is done to
strengthen foreign trade and to attract Hong Kong and foreign businessmen
to invest and set up factories in Guangzhou, Shantou, Fukzhou and Xiamen
in a bid to accelerate the four modernisations. Shenzhen, Shekou, Zhuhai
have also been set up as special processing districts. The intention of
the Central Government is to extend Kowloon and the New Territories to the
neighbouring regions like Namtou and Shekou to enable Hong Kong and British
consortia to invest in Shenzhen so as to gradually remove the psychological
apprehension of the expiry of the New Territories Lease in 1977. During
a visit to Britain in October last year, Chairman Hua Guofeng openly
talked about protection for interests of foreign investments in China
and it is obvious that he meant to ask foreign and Chinese investors not
to worry
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It is learnt that at the inaugural meeting of the Hong Kong and
Macau Work Group in January, Deng Xiaoping was present and he
gave some important directions.
He talked concisely on three problems.
/Firstly, on