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RELATIONS WITH BRITAIN
12.
A Reuter's despatch of 23 March reported that Foreign Minister Wu Xueqian had said to the Japanese Foreign Minister Mr Abe that China was ready to learn from Britain about administrative control in Hong Kong if Britain was prepared to cooperate.
13. Xu Jiatun said on 21 April that China would not interfere between 1984 and 1997. In those 13 years the British were
responsible in name and substance. The Chinese would "support what- ever is beneficial to Hong Kong's stability and prosperity and give our suggestions or criticisms on whatever is harmful to that stability and prosperity".
14. Ji Pengfei told the Heung Yee Kuk delegation in May that there might be a possibility of inviting Britain to act as an adviser in the post-1997 Hong Kong government.
This did not mean a co- administration of Hong Kong.
ASSURANCES/GUARANTEES
15. On 10 January Xu Jiatun said that the capitalist system in Hong Kong would remain unchanged for fifty years after 1997, this not only suited China, but "took into account to the maximum" the wishes of compatriots in Hong Kong.
16. In his address to the Canadian parliament on 17 January, Premier Zhao Ziyang said "All these (ie China's policies on Hong Kong) will be guaranteed by a basic law of Hong Kong to be enacted by the NPC, which will take into full account the opinions of people of all walks of life in Hong Kong.'
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17. On 29 January Deng Xiaoping is said (by the magazine Chengming) to have told Ma Wan-chi of the Macao Chinese General Chamber of Commerce that China's policies of reunification while taking account of local prosperity and stability were "extremely magnanimous". Doubts were understandable but China's sincerity would gradually come to be understood.
18.
Reuters of 24 March reported that Wu Xueqian had said to Mr Abe that Britain might have doubts about the sincerity of China's commitment to guarantee preservation of Hong Kong's current economic and social systems, but China would keep its promise.
19. Zhao Ziyang wrote to the Students Union of the Chinese University of Hong Kong on 26 March saying: "you may be assured that the policy and measures adopted by the Chinese government in the course of solving the problem of Hong Kong will certainly meet the wishes and interests of Hong Kong compatriots".
20. In a press conference in Vienna on 5 April Wu Xueqian said that the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong would be assured not only for the present but also for the future after China regained sovereignty.
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