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5. T S Lo said he was planning one or two magazines, which will be weekly or bi-weekly, to start publication in about a year's time. They would be in English and he was looking for a reputable English journalist to take on an editorial role. Although the magazines would seek to present a fair and often favourable view of China, they would be high quality objective journalism and not propaganda efforts. He would hope for a circulation of about 25,000. He asked if I could think of any British journalists who might be suitable. I said I would bear this in mind but could think of none at present.
6. He then said, rather oddly, that he did not want spies sent to work for him. He had nothing against spies, but they gave a poor return for their salary since their minds were elsewhere!
7. During discussions on the resolution of the airport problems, T S Lo referred to Percy Craddock and said it was well known fact that he was Head of MI5. I said that it was certainly not well-known to me. TS Lo said he had been told this by Henry Keswick.
8.
In discussion about the airport project, he said, as he has said to me before, that China would have no difficulty with British firms taking up a major share of the contracts. Indeed they would welcome it. Comments to the contrary, he said, originated with the Hong Kong Government and had no validity.
9. T S Lo asked why so many former British Hong Kong officials were staying on in Hong Kong, and said he wondered what they were up to. He mentioned Sir David Akers-Jones, Sir Jack Cater, Dennis Bray and Iain Macpherson. I said that I very much doubted whether they were up to anything. They had all chosen to retire in Hong Kong where they had spent much of their working lives and had sunk roots. They paid lower taxes here than in the UK and no doubt found it a congenial place to be. Moreover all of them had found other work here which might be more difficult in the UK. TS Lo said that prior to 1984 they would not have been allowed to stay on in Hong Kong after retirement. He still seemed to imply that there was something sinister in their continued presence here.
10. It was clear throughout that T S Lo sees himself as some- one who is acceptable to the Chinese leadership and who knows the ways of the British and that he would value the role of an intermediary. I assume this lies behind his approaches to me. He makes not infrequent disparaging comments to the distrust with which he is viewed in Hong Kong, particularly by the Administration, and on this occasion referred in particular to what he claimed was an orchestrated press campaign against him here. As he more or less confirmed in the comments recorded above, however, he probably thinks that his day has not yet
come.
30 July 1991
PW Heap
CONFIDENTIAL