香港總督府
Secret
Dear Peter,
SECRET
Copy: M. Burns
Mr Cox
Mr Stone
Mr Wye, Myself.
HKCB 010/5
GOVERNMENT HOUSE
HONG KONG
9 December 1991
RAD
18/12
What the Governor achatky said was Hal this paper
was not very satisfactory
and Hal M. Sze was
M. Sze was to re-write
sahsfactory and Hal
Principal Officials il
10
it well illustrates the
quif Jetween He two sides on continuity of senior officials.
As the Governor mentioned to you at your meeting on 5 December, we discussed this subject at an internal meeting last Friday. Michael Sze will now be digging out the old 1989 papers on the "concentric circles" approach and bringing them up-to-date. The Governor will probably want to discuss this revised paper before he sees Lu Ping on 6 January.
We will of course send you a copy of that paper once we have it in a form we are happy with. In the meantime, you may be interested to read the attached CPU analysis of the Chinese Government's attitude towards the general subject of continuity in the civil service. This is of course only a think-piece, and has no official status. Some of those present at the meeting thought it represented a rather pessimistic view of Chinese attitudes. But it does certainly provide a valuable warning that we should not take anything for granted.
Your ever,
Ribei
Schult
12/12
(R.J.F. Hoare)
Private Secretary
Mr. P. Ricketts
Hong Kong Department
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
SECRET