BY BAG
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CONFIDENTIAL
香港下亞厘畢道
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Future fitong Kong INDEX..
RJT McLaren Esq
FE Dept
FCO
рес
1
June 1980.
Lee Mr Dronald (esp? § 6
Research Dept (FE)
2.
Mr Ja
م
Bi
Mr Furssignol
R, PA Toppy / che JNK file
Visit by the Governor of Guangdong
to Macau
Xi Zhongxun, the Governor of Guangdong, has just paid an official visit to Macau from 4-7 June. This was the first such visit by a Governor of Guangdong since at least 1949. He was accompanied by Vice Governor Liang Weilin (formerly Director of NCNA here) and a small entourage.
2.
When Governor Xi was here last December, he had originally planned to go back to Guangdong via Macau. These plans were later changed partly, it seemed, because of Xi's wish to stay longer in Hong Kong and partly because of an imminent meeting of the Guangdong National People's Congress. When General Egidio, the Governor of Macau, was in China in March this year, he invited Xi to visit Macau. The recent visit was the result.
3.
All this sounds plain sailing. In practice, however, things were not that simple. The Macau authorities were given only 1 days' warning of Xi's impending arrival. It came at an awkward moment for them. They had a con- stitutional wrangle going on (about which I have written separately); they were about to receive a visit from a Portugese Minister and the Deputy to the Vice Premier with special responsibilities for Macau; and, General Egidio had for the first time invited a number of Consul-Generals from Hong Kong to Macau to talk about the refugee problem (Their visit and Xi's arrival coincided so that the Governor had to divide his time between the two). The precise reasons for Xi's visit being arranged at the last minute remain unclear. I have been told by the Chinese that plans for the visit were afoot in May but that there had to be some last-minute adjust- ments to the precise dates.
4.
Xi's visit and its timing could not have been wholly unconnected with the dispute now going on in Macau about
CONFIDENTIAL
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