The Governor said that his experience showed that relations
with China should be based on trust and good personal
5.
relationships.
China currently put great emphasis on economic development and
co-operation in this field was often the key to solving political
problems although the Chinese were likely to remain intransigent
in some areas eg human rights. He did not see the Sino/UK
dispute over Hong Kong as posing any dangerous precedent for
Macao, and believed the problems were of form rather than
substance and would be resolved if the Chinese were given room
for manoeuvre. Was LEGCO going to discuss alternatives to Mr
Patten's proposals?
6. STC said that it was up to LEGCO to decide. After initial
reluctance to take a stand there were now encouraging signs that
LEGCO members were taking this responsibility seriously. As for
the business community, they were beginning to perceive that the
first priority for business was not to follow China's wishes but
to safeguard the rule of law. The Chinese too would come to see
this soon. Li Ka Shing's advisers had told STC that his STAR TV
BBC Mandarin news service now had 10 million viewers in China.
Li Ka Shing expected Chinese censorship laws to change soon and
was putting up a new 160-channel satellite as well as building a
satellite dish factory in China.