23
by Deng Xiaoping13) prepared the Chinese negotiating position
which was approved by the Secretariat of the CPC Central
Committee in December 1982. It followed the lines of what Deng
called "one country two systems" and the Joint Declaration of
1984 is largely based upon it. Liao, unfortunately died in 1983.
He was replaced in effect by Ji Pengfei (a former acting Foreign
Minister and a participant in the Long March, but less
cosmopolitan that Liao and less well connected in the overseas
Chinese communities) who although well established in terms of
the Communist Party, did not have as deep an understanding of
Hong Kong affairs as his predecessor and did not enjoy Deng's
confidence to the same extent. He was followed as principal
negotiators on the Chinese side first by Zhou Nan and then by Lu
Ping who currently heads the Hong Kong and Macau Office under the
State Council. The latter two have not had the same personal
standing among the top Party leaders as their two predecessors
and they have not had the same access to Deng Xiaoping especially
as he began to withdraw from the daily running of state affairs.
The Hong Kong and Macau office enjoys ministerial status and
its director is in effect a minister, but the office is not part
of any of the major bureaucratic systems centred on the State
Council. It is in practice under the authority of the Prime
Minister. The Director of the Office is not a member of the
important Foreign Affairs Committee of the Party and State.
13 For an account of Liao's significance especially in relations with japan see Kurt Werner Radtke, China's Relations with Japan, 1945-83: The Role of Liao Chengzhi. (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1990).