114
should not join the British Nationality Scheme. They were
also unimplicit that there were considerable difficulties
with regard to JLG discussions on civil service pensions.
3.
State
On the economic side, the message as given by the
Commission for Restructuring the Economic Systems was
the need for steady and balanced development. With drastic
political changes taking place in the USSR, opportunity was
taken to stress the superiority of the PRC's economically
led reform over the political reforms in the Soviet Union,
which were said to be destablising and economically
disastrous.
It was also emphasised that the PRC had not
and would not give up communism. The present economic
reform was the means to achieve the socialist goal, but not
an end in itself.
4.
To enhance two-way communication, the delegation
also tried to explain HK's systems during the trip. The
area where greatest interests were shown was the pay of HKG
officials. Eyes budged and mouths dropped when the Chinese
were given an idea of the approximate starting salary of an
A.O. (I was extremely evasive over SHW's salary, on which I
was questioned many times). It appeared that the Chinese
relatively low paid compared to other
civil service were
professions in the PRC.
However, there is no doubt in my
mind that they still occupy a very privileged position in
an essentially non-competitive system.
Despite what was
འ་་ ་Fh༩ ་པས་སག་་་