CONFIDENTIAL
-2-
Considerations
5.
The Secretary of State will wish to be guided by the following
considerations:
(a) the Governor of Hong Kong and Sir Lawrence Kadoorie are now
convinced that the Chinese both in Guangdong and Peking, are
serious;
(b) Sir L Kadoorie sees the project as a major test of Chinese
willingness to continue cooperation with Hong Kong under British
sovereignty well beyond 1997. The Governor, Sir P Cradock, and
we ourselves agree that it could be one important touchstone of
the Chinese attitude;
(c) it would be helpful at this stage to show the Chinese that HMG
and the Hong Kong Government understand the political signific-
ance of a collaborative venture extending well into the next
century;
(d) at the same time, if the Chinese too wish the project to be seen
in this light, we would expect them to give particular encourage-
ment to British participation by ensuring that a preponderant
share of the non-nuclear hardware should be supplied by British
companies;
(e) since the Guangdong authorities appear to have virtually decided
on a PWR, no UK company is in the market for the nuclear reactor;
the front runners are Westinghouse (USA), Framatome (France) and
Kraftwerk Union (Germany). (A Reagan Presidency moving to closer
ties with Taiwan would probably mean that the Chinese excluded
Westinghouse.)
(f) we have seen suggestions that by loaning Dr Marshall to CLP as
their technical adviser (though he is acting purely in his personal
capacity and not as a member of the UKAEA) HMG has committed
itself to supporting the project and that any suggestion of a lack
of enthusiasm now might be seen by the Chinese as backtracking.
CONFIDENTIAL
/We