Mr
4r P961,
Hong Kong Dept
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MICD 30111 PA
Ji
Press on Hong Kong
The Secretary of State has seen the articles in the Sunday Telegraph and in today's Independent about Hong Kong. He has not taken a view as to whether we should try to reply to either of these pieces but he is again concerned that there is an imbalance between helpful and unhelpful articles. In particular, he is struck by the absence of any helpful pieces from the likes of Lydia Dunn, Allen Lee, and other articulate people in Hong Kong. He recalls that the department and the Governor were giving some thought to encouraging such people to contribute to the debate in the UK press.
One point that the Secretary of State feels
that the latest articles should not be allowed to
get away with is the contention that none of the difficulties in the Basic Law have been moved in the right direction. His impression was that we had in fact been doing
rather well in getting the Chinese to improve on the contentious clauses.
Like
23 January 1989
cc:
PS/Lord Glenarthur
Mr Gillmore
Mr McLaren
Mr Burns, News Dept
(R N Peirce)
/R7730/1
Miss Maroon
и
Mes wood 257;
N
Mr Forkman 3011
I am following
this
up
with HK.
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Way.
A