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narrow the gap between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. The problem of illegal
outflow of populace in Shenzhen is very serious. The young and the
strong have all gone, leaving behind only the elderly and the children
in the production teano. Not only are the people doing so, but the
cadres as well. Furthermore, the party secretaries and branch office
secretaries are encouraging their children to flee to Hong Kong.
Some
of them even give their children every assistance to do so. Reports
from Shenzhen district show that 80 to 90 per cent of the members of the
Party committees and branch committees have children leaving the country
;
illegally.
What shall we do? Even armies cannot stop them. We therefore
have to open up and develop Shenzhen to shorten the distance between the
two places.
then
{
If Shenzhen more or less catches up with Hong Kong in a decade or so,
our customs stationed there can be withdrawn and the pre-emancipation
situation can be restored to allow residents from both sides to cross
over freely. The problem at governmental level, however, is more difficult
to tackle. We still do not have a positive solution and everyone of you
may put forward more views on the matter. Initially, I wonder if we can
work it out by stages. In the first stage we would appoint a Shenzhen
Commissioner to Hong Kong who would assume the role similar to that of the
Xinhua News Agency. Then after a period our Commissioner and the Hong
Kong Governor would set up a joint government to co-administer the place.
Finally, when everyone has grown accustomed to this form of administration,
we would take the place back as a special city. Of course, a lot of
questions are involved. Britain may not agree to our proposal, and negotiations
are necessary. At the moment, what is most important is to work out several
possibilities. Without other alternatives, negotiations are but empty
talks. All of you were engaged in foreign affairs work for a number of
years and
“་་་་་➢4,