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HVIK 040/57
CONFIDENTIAL
Reference..
1120
23 NOV 1984
Mr Ashton
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
pa
PA
кри
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NOTES FOR BANQUET SPEECH BY PRIME MINISTER IN PEKING (15 MINUTES, OF WHICH 5 ON HONG KONG)
1. I have enjoyed three visits here in five years. Eventful years for Britain and China. The visits have had a pattern: to study, to discuss, to agree.
2.
The visit is short: but much can be said between friends in a day. [insert suitable Chinese proverb]. Yet its significance stretches across three centuries: one put Hong Kong at the centre of our relations; one has lived with that problem: and the 21st
Century will have the legacy of its solution.] [Pasage on
3.
#obj
Three centuries: a short span for the two great civilisations of which we are part - Europe and Asia. More has been shared by these civilizations that we sometimes realise. Above all, the ability to cope with periods of great change. Our countries have been at the centre of immensely beneficial technology revolutions. Agriculture in China. The irrigation systems based on such mighty works as the Dujiang Dam built over 2,000 years ago in Chengdu [see page 118 of Chinese Science and the West] made China great. In Britain, the Industrial Revolution produced changes which also shaped the world's future.
4.
We in Britain, like you in China, are proud of our heritage. We welcome change, but value the continuity of fundamental values. Shakespeare is part of 20th Century Britain. as the Tang and Song poets are part of 20th century China.
5. The heritage is also shared. Excellency, for this magnaficent expression from a poem by Du Fu: glasses" (Shi Shang Yi Bu Zui
-
In thanking you, your banquet I borrow an apt "still not drunk after ten see "A little Primer of Du Fu page 71). Friendship and understanding are deeper than the glass. And without that depth of understanding we would not have been able to sign the agreement which is the reason for tonight's celebration. Insert section on the HK Agreement).
6. The constancy of purpose which we have shown in these negotiations should surprise no-one. The firmness with which change is being directed in China is striking. The agricultural reforms which started in 1978 have each year become more effective, more firmly rooted. It was natural that comparable urban and industrial reforms should follow. They have. You have not been deflected from
your purpose.
7. We in Britain have also been steadily implementing changes which will give all our people a bright and more challenging future. These also are changes to repair mistakes of the past. Sometimes there are critics and fait-hearts. Good criticism is welcome. Weakness of spirit never. And I find support for this in China. Early in the campaign to seek truth from facts and look to the future, Chairman Deng made a striking remark: that it is "People whose thinking has become rigid (who) tend to veer with the wind".
(Deng, selected works page 153). I agree. And I am sure that this shared determination to face change with firmness of purpose will bring rewards as we look together to 1997 and beyond.
/8.
CODE 18-77
CONFIDENTIAL