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under FOI exemption 27(1)(a)(c)(d)
The Chinese Attitude
10.
The above is a very condensed summary of many months of
delicate and painful manoeuvres. The key to them is the Chinese
attitude and an understanding of it is crucial not only to
analysis of the past but also of any provision for the future.
The Chinese approach to the issue is essentially political and
emotional. They wish to recover national territory.
They wish
to expunge the humiliations of the Opium Wars. They recall the se
as not only bad in themselves, but bad as the prelude to a whole
series of depredations and humiliations inflicted by foreigners
on China under the Qing dynasty. These emotions are deep and
real and it would be fatal to underestimate them. Deng Xiaoping,
who is the principal author of Chinese policy on this question.
has repeatedly said he will not go down in history as another
Li Hong Zhang (the eminent Qing statesman who signed the lease
of the New Territories). The Chinese leaders are well aware of
the economic benefits flowing to them from Hong Kong at present
and naturally would like to secure them for the future; but they
have made it clear that, faced with a choice between prosperity
and national reunification, they will go for the latter.
the choice appears less sharp to them than for us. They have
announced a plan for Hong Kong which, coming from them, is
Moreover,
/surprisingly
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7.