SEP 05 '86 15:04 TIB (OOL) HK GOVT
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A specialist writer on Chinese affairs at the Far Eastern Economic Review, David Bonavia, told Radio-3 that the campaign for the shelving of the Daya Bay project had only served to annoy Peking. He believed that China would definitely go ahead with the project.
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Mr Bonavia thought that the development would be part of the learning process for Chinese leaders, who should now realise that ruling HK was not such a simple matter as they had assumed.
Sing Tao Jih Pao reported that Legco Unofficial Martin Lee said in Xiamen yesterday that he had called off a press conference scheduled for August 31 to declare his stand on the Daya Bay issue.
In a separate report, the paper quoted a China Light spokesman as saying that they had not heard anything about the Chinese and the French changing the timing for the signing of the Daya Bay contracts.
The spokesman reiterated that the contracts would be signed in the middle of September and would be submitted to the State Council for formal endorsement in early October.
Legco member Rita Fan told the paper that she would seek clarification on the date of the signing of contracts at next week's Legco in-house meeting •
An NCNA report released in Peking yesterday quoted deputy director of the Chinese National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA), Shi Guangchang, as saying that nuclear safety research had been put down as a priority item in the country's seventh five-year plan.
A group of individuals who called for a "scientific approach" to the Daya Bay issue returned from Peking yesterday after a three-day trip to the Chinese capital.
A spokesman for the group, Tam Kwok-chung, told reporters that 'construction of the plant would only be started after obtaining approval from the NNSA, which was waiting for a preliminary safety'. analysis report from the Guangdong Nuclear Power Joint Venture Company. The report was being compiled by the French and was expected to be completed by November.
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He said the group would not comment on whether the plant should be built until the safety analysis report was available. They would issue a report in two months' time.
Michael Chugani reported in the lead story in the SCM Post that sensitive decision on the extent of political reforms are expected to be made during talks in London between Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher and Executive councillors led by Governor Sir Edward Youde next month.
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