CONFIDENTIAL
the Monoc 21/8
You
tosa związ
дож слизь
18
ST MON
10 DOWNING STREET
From the Private Secretary
нк кога HKK02633x 31
NO.
Dear lan
AUG 1980
DÁ OFFICER
INDEX
MA
Enter
80
For consideration
at the Doe post-
30 July 1980,
Kadoorie
meet HKK 166|1
Бала не
G
dy Ps
PS
PS/CPS
RECEIVE
-
OFF
RIM Blaker - 5 AUG 1980 Sui et Youse
Call by Sir Lawrence Kadoorie Mt Skatten
16,8
~3577
Sir Lawrence Kadoorie called on the Prime Minister this morning as arranged. Virtually all the discussion was about the Guangdong Project. Sir Lawrence assured the Prime Minister that the points he was putting to her would be familiar to the Department of Industry. I shall therefore not record them in any detail in this letter.
The main point which Sir Lawrence wished to convey was that, in his view, the Guangdong Project, apart from being of great commercial importance, had now acquired considerable political significance. He thought that it had become a pivotal element in the relationship between Hong Kong and the Chinese Peoples Republic. As evidence, he cited the wish of the authorities in Peking to have HMG involved in the contract; the fact that the proposed contract would run well into the next century and long after the lease on the New Territories expired; and the general tone, particularly recently, of the conversations between his representatives and the Chinese. Sir Lawrence read to the Prime Minister the enclosed record of an informal discussion which had taken place recently in Hong Kong between Mr. W.F. Stones and Mr. Chen Gang of the Guangdong Provincial Government. Sir Lawrence stressed the inevitable uncertainties involved in dealing with the Chinese. No-one could be altogether certain of their motives. But he was 70 per cent sure that the Chinese authorities now saw the Guangdong Project as a symbol of the continuing relationship between the Peoples Republic and Hong Kong and, at one remove, the United Kingdom. It was important that HMG should respond appropriately.
The Prime Minister said that she was keenly interested in what Sir Lawrence had said. So far as she was concerned, this was an opportunity that we must not let slip. The project would be good for Hong Kong, and good for the United Kingdom. She thought that the Chinese might well see the project as an earnest both of their own and of Britain's faith in the future of Hong Kong. They might also see it as a way to project the excellent political relations between China and the United Kingdom into the commercial sphere. The Prime Minister
CONFIDENTIAL
/said that she