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5. Mr Hawke asked whether the Chinese announcement would be
likely to go further than the 12-point plan they had already publicized. The Governor said that it depended on what the
12 points really meant. The Chinese would need to be much more specific than they had been so far if they were to reassure people
in Hong Kong.
Mr Hawke asked whether the Chinese would be under any pressure to make their plan more specific. The Governor thought they would: Hong Kong existed on confidence and, if this deteri-
orated, there would be an outflow of people and capital.
6.
Mr Hawke said he would be surprised if the Chinese would feel under any pressure to elaborate on their plan. He thought there might be some "overhang" of the attitude which HMG had adopted until the latter part of 1983, an attitude which in his view and that of
the Australian Government had been unrealistic. The Governor said
that the Chinese would not be able to achieve their stated objective
unless they could convince the people of Hong Kong that their plan
would work. Mr Hawke asked whether the "card" Britain was playing was
that people would begin to leave if they were not satisfied with the Chinese plan. The Governor said it was not a question of "cards". The Hong Kong Government could not dictate what happened in the Hong Kong economy, which was an open one and one which
depended on what investors believed. Mr Hawke suggested that
those who influenced the economy were astute businessmen.
doubted whether they would be affected too much by one announcement which said nothing new. He also took the view that the Chinese understood what made Hong Kong work. The Governor said that there was no doubt that certain institutions here, e.g. the Bank of China,
understood Hong Kong well, but he was less certain that political
leaders in Peking had the same understanding. Mr Hawke said that Deng had had a part in the negotiations: he certainly understood
the political and economic realities. So did Zhao, who had impressed him with his keen perception of affairs throughout the
world.
He
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