CONFIDENTIAL
J DI Boyd Esq Political Adviser
HONG KONG
Decor
J
In
HKK 010/1
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- 3 JUL 1986
CHINA INTERNAL: QIAO SHI
British Embassy
PEKING
11 June 1986
Md Samith 248 N than Се
HK Du Research D
ماد میں
CB 276...
23/16
pa not sale MA
1. David Blunt is now on leave and I am replying to your letter of 6 June on his behalf. We have not heard any suggestion here that Qiao Shi might take on a Hong Kong role. That said, there does appear to be something of a gap in the Chinese leadership's coverage of Hong Kong. During the negotiations Deng Xiaoping made it quite plain that only a small number of the most senior members of the Chinese leadership were allowed to speak with authority on Hong Kong and offenders were
Qiao Shi was not one given a sharp rap over the knuckles. of the charmed group, but the time has now perhaps come for one of the younger members of the leadership to be given some responsibility for a question that will undoubtedly be important for a long time to come.
2. Qiao Shi worked under Ji Pengfei for a time in the late seventies and early eighties when Ji was Director of the Party's International Liaison Department and he succeeded Ji in that post in 1982. There is at least a possible connection here either through the impression he made on Ji at that time or much less likely that he had some involvement in Hong Kong matters as Ji Pengfei's deputy. Qiao Shi does now, following the NPC, have a government position as Vice-Premier which would certainly make it easier from a presentational point of view for him to have some involvement with Hong Kong as the Chinese would presumably wish to avoid giving the impression that Hong Kong affairs were being run directly through Party mechanisms. One of his other main responsibilities is believed to be security matters which would not go down so well in Hong Kong.
CONFIDENTIAL
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