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027/8
48
RD Clift Esq CMG Political Adviser HONG KONG
Hab 027/8
нав
( SAVL 1207
PA CR 1/4731/49
020/393/15
8 July 1987
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་
VISIT TO HONG KONG BY WIFE OF JI PENGFEI
1. Thank you for your letter of 17 June to Peter Thomson. replying in Peter's absence at JLG VII.
2.
I am
On the question of the 'non-visit' by Zhao Ziyang to Moscow during his recent Eastern European tour, we know that Zhao has been invited on several occasions to visit the Soviet Union (eg by Talyzin last year). Those invitations were put to Zhao in his capacity as Premier. We have heard a rumour that Zhao was invited to stop over in (but not formally visit) Moscow on his way to Eastern Europe.
3.
We find Madam Xu's assertion in the penultimate sentence of your letter rather puzzling. The difference in Chinese policy towards Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union is well known. Any invitation to visit or stop over in Moscow would surely have been declined by the Chinese because of the unsatisfactory state of Sino-Soviet political relations, rather than because of any wish to emphasise the difference referred to by Madam Xu.
cc:✓co H
CO Hum Esq
Hong Kong Dept, FCO
J T Masefield Esq CMG FED, FCO
C O PIGOTT
Acting Head of Chancery
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