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DEPARTMENT OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY
1-19 VICTORIA STREET
LONDON SW1H 0ET
Telephone (Direct dialling) 01-215)
GTN 215)
(Switchboard) 01-215 7877
8 July 1986
5422
A bater a
JU46
чк
Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
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cur 30/3
S.VA
AUG 1985
SECRET
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The Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Howe QC MP
Secretary of State for
Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs Foreign & Commonwealth Office Downing Street London SW1
Dear
HONG KONG:
Geoffrey
NUCLEAR SAFETY
PS/Mr Reutan PS/M Qaisar
Handing
Sir w
Dr wilan
FED
4.
NED
29
Ohr
Thank you for your minute of 16 July about public concern in Hong Kong over the safety of the Guangdong nuclear station.
I agree that we must continue to give our full support to the Hong Kong Government in its efforts to inform and reassure the Hong Kong people.
The Government's suggestion that the Chinese Government should be told of the 'political price' of the continuation of the project would, as you say, have important implications for our relation- ships with both the Chinese and the French. Such a move would be detrimental to our efforts to expand Sino-British trade including the recently agreed £300m soft loan facility. There would also be major repercussions on political and commercial relations with the French. Given the French Government's unwavering commitment to their nuclear power programme, and their close collaboration with us in Government and industrial spheres for over five years to secure the Guangdong project, they would undoubtedly react very strongly to suggestions originating from HMG that the project should be substantially amended. It is possible that the effects would go much wider than our relations with France and China. The UK could be represented, however unfairly, as an unreliable partner for collaborative projects in general. I think therefore that we should take no steps to follow up the Governor's suggestion without full Ministerial consideration, and I believe that for the present our main task is to seek to reassure Hong Kong, rather than to consider ways of putting pressure on the Chinese to amend the project. If you agree you may wish to make
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€286
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BOARD OF TRADE BICENTENARY
999-1