6026/13
HKR
28 February 1991
Pear Charles
Aur Ha
+ pa PM. vini file.
быз
CONFIDENTIAL
띠
ccflr Mclaren
علان
You may
fant HKD
Whe to see
how this came out.
esp last para
Wan
which
cut right back
by 2775
Mr Mythis
To see possibility of pm visit to HK.
56/3 Spare Copy
-
124/2
вич в
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
London SW1A 2AH
R14/2
Miss Maroon
Butt Mo mejor
Sino-British Relations
Thank you for your letter of 10 February.
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The Prime Minister asked whether we can expect to receive a high level visitor from China in response to the invitation in his message to Li Peng. In the last paragraph of his reply of 21 February Li Peng shares the hope that "China and Britain will gradually realise exchanges of high-level visitors". There are a number of possibilities. Wan Li, the Chairman of the National Peoples Congress, may reactivate his visit which was postponed at the last minute last November, apparently for health reasons. The Prime Minister's message alludes to our hope that he can come. If he does it would be helpful if the Prime Minister could agree to see him and, if possible, entertain him.
We
We have invited some key Provincial and Municipal leaders (who are regarded as of senior Ministerial rank) to visit this country when their diaries permit, including the Mayors of Tianjin, Shanghai and Ningbo. are also thinking of inviting the Governor of Guangdong. All these have good reformist credentials, The Chinese Ambassador tells us that the Mayor of Tianjin is keen to come and is encouraging him to suggest possible dates.
We are considering which central government leaders might be invited. Foreign Minister Qian Qichen is on a tour of a number of European countries, mainly in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. He will probably want to come here later, possibly in the autumn particularly if the Foreign Secretary decides to go to
1
CONFIDENTIAL
/Peking