15
Mr Hum
Аккош
RECEIVED
HKD
CONFIDENTIAL
D. Lands
REGISTA:
26 AUG 1986
PA
KIICTAY Action Takan
St Sale
(354.
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all relevant
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Cir
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From:
PJ Westmacott
Date:
25 July 1986
CC:
PS
PS/PUS
Sir W Harding
Dr Wilson
G'day
040/18
!
дов 2012. 2618
CALL ON MR RENTON BY GOVERNOR OF HONG KONG, 24 JULY
Daya Bay
really?
1. The Governor said that Hong Kong was resigned to the Daya Bay nuclear plant being built, but that its construction would remain a source of anxiety. There was no trust in Chinese ability to run the plant properly or to tell Hong Kong if problems arose. Current anxieties might be allayed by the UMELCO fact-finding mission, and by assurances that the reactor design was quite different from that of Chernobyl. But concern would re-surface if, for example, there was a French nuclear accident, or if the CEGB decided not to build the Sizewell plant. Even without further problems of this kind, the commissioning of the Daya Bay plant in the early 1990's would cause Hong Kong's evacuation complex to reappear - at a time when political anxieties about the approach of 1997 would already be high.
2. There was some discussion of how best to respond to the problem. Mr Renton wondered whether the Chinese would accept an external consultant, in whom Hong Kong opinion would have confidence. The Governor was sure that the Chinese would not accept a Hong Kong Government appointee. He hoped that the French would remain on site for as long as possible. Stories of inadequate preliminary engineering on the part of the Chinese were already causing concern in Hong Kong.
Kowloon Walled City
3. The Governor insisted that the Chinese had no locus for asking to be consulted about the clearance of the Walled City. The Joint Declaration had made clear that HMG was responsible for the administration of Kowloon and the New Territories in their entirety. He had therefore. been very surprised when the Chinese made the proposed clearance a matter of principle during Mr Renton's visit to Peking. There would be great suspicion in Hong Kong
CONFIDENTIAL