Head of Chandery Mr Ingall
Mailer 31/12
The Wen Hui Bas reported recently that wo is now!
deputy Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Small Group. This is presumably what Mei was referring to in paral PL.compy to FED HKD and Research Dept FLO",
PENGFEI to PA, Home Corp At 31/12
WU XUEQIAN AND JI
Al
and
1. At the party given by the MFA for the Diplomatic Corps on 30 December, I was told by Mei Zhaorong that Wu Xueqian had become even busier than ever. He had a lot of work to do "in the State Council" and he had taken over some, although not all, of the functions of Ji Pengfei.
2. In answer to my question Mei said that Wu had not taken over any part of Ji's formal responsibilities in respect of Hong Kong. But as Foreign Minister, he continued to follow developments in, and in relation to, Hong Kong very closely 3. Mei just laughed when I asked him how I was to reconcile rumours that Wu would cease to be Foreign Minister at or after the next meeting of the NPC with statements by people close to Ji that Ji expected to stay on as the Director of the Hong Kong and Macau Office of the State Council. My own best guess is that, in spite of what we have been told by Lu Ping, Wu will we in fact replace Ji as Director, and as the general coordinator of Chinese external policy, next Spring.
HRB 26/1
RECE. A
12 JAN 1988
RE.
31. December 1987
RESTRICTED
Richard Evans