CODE 18-77
CONFIDENTIAL
Reference
the city's opportunities. Ding guessed that the majority of the population were now Mandarin rather than Cantonese speakers. What little I overheard of conversation in the town centre bore this out. The main problem is controlling access to the SEZ, Ding freely admitted, was corrupt practices on the part of police officers posted on the internal boundary between the SEZ and the rest of China.
11. In general, the SEZ appeared a lively and prosperous place. There is a great deal of construction under way, although apparently this is threatened by China's recent austerity measures. The city is, of course, conceived as an imitation Hong Kong and its citizens seek to emulate the Hong Kong they know from the TV or from Hong Kong tourists "people here look on Hong Kong as a paradise", Ding told me. In fact, it is a fairly good imitation, if not of Hong Kong then of one of the scruffier New Territories towns, and the further growth of this strange city must surely be in Hong Kong's interests.
1 June 1989
CC:
Micholas Damaca
N Cannon
Hong Kong Department WH 303
270 2657
Mr Voysey, FED
Mr Torrance, Security Dept
Mr Bunten, Assistant Political Adviser,
Hong Kong
CONFIDENTIAL