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MR MCLAREN
PS/LORD GLENARTHUR
CONFIDENTIAL.
FROM: W B MCCLEARY
FAR EASTERN DEPARTMENT
DATE: 14 April 1989
CC: PS/PUS
Mr Gillmore
Mr Paul, HKD
Mr Brenton, UND
Mr Wye, Research Dept
CHINA: NATIONAL PEOPLES CONGRESS SESSION
1.
I submit Peking telnos 494-496 of 21 March and
577-579 of 5 April which report and comment on the proceedings of the annual session of China's
parliamentary body, the National People's Congress.
Together they provide a very useful and illuminating
summary of what was, for all its lack of headline
material, still an important meeting. The telegrams of comment nos 496 and 579 are particularly valuable.
2.
The session was held against a background of mounting difficulties for China's reform programme. Economic
problems, at least in part attributable to ill-judged
attempts to speed up the process of reform, forced
themselves on to the leadership's attention in the course of last year. Of particular concern was inflation which reached its highest rate since 1949. As reforms had to be reined in in favour of more cautious policies of economic retrenchment and recentralisation, questions began to be raised about the long term viability of reform and the position of Party Secretary, Zhao Ziyang,
AS1AAK
1
CONFIDENTIAL