SPD10BM07
CONFIDENTIAL
HKK
010 STR
PS
1 0 DEC 1986
PS- 85/Mrbanion
Spur Barton
HUD
Y
а
DRUK OFFICER
PA
SIR GEOFFREY HOWE
cc Secretary of State
for Trade and Industry
Secretary of State for Employment
Mer Shutt My Jo
3
At the Prime Minister's suggestion, I accompanied K Pao last
week at the opening of the new University of Ningbo he has just donated to China. He was keen that I should report back to you and the Prime Minister. I also visited both the English and
Chinese Universities in Hong Kong, and a number of institutes
in Peking, where I discussed our student exchanges with China.
85
RA
I found the trip worthwhile educationally, politically, and commercially. Y K Pao was accompanied by several other big businessmen from Hong Kong ("the Ningbo Gang" as Deng Xiao-ping apparently calls them), by the Head of the NCNA in Hong Kong, and by a small group of British businessmen and bankers. The inauguration
of the new University went well: it is a good building, and
already has nearly 300 students. Y K Pao is genuinely popular
in his birthplace, both as the "local boy who made good", and
as a generous benefactor. His visit was big news, and he was
clapped in the streets.
He was well received by the Chinese Government by Vice Premier
Wan Li in Ningbo, and by Gu Mu, a Senior State Councillor with responsibilities for the 14 designated coastal cities, who entertained us in Peking. In discussion with Wan Li and Gu Mu, in my speech,
and in local press interviews, I stressed our readiness to take part in the economic development of the Ningbo area, which is
one of the 14.
-
Development is only just getting off the ground. But I was impressed
by the local officials younger, more technocratic and more
open than the party bureaucrats of recent times. The British
bankers saw real opportunities in the steel works, the new port
and telecommunications, though there were doubts about the adequacy
of the local infrastructure to carry a big expansion. They also thought that Y K Pao was asking for unrealistically large amounts
CONFIDENTIAL