31
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
by Ji Pengfei (a former Foreign
Minister and a participant in the Long March, but less
cosmopolitan than 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 Zhang Wenjing then by
Yao Guang who was followed by Zhou Nan and finally by Lu Ping who
currently heads the Hong Kong and Macau Office under the State
Council. The last four 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.
under the
The Hong Kong and Macau Office enjoys ministerial status and
its director is in effect a minister, but the Office is not
directly connected with any of the major bureaucratic systems
centred on the State Council. It is in practice under
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. Apart from the aged 'immortals' such as Deng
Xiaoping, Chen Yun, Peng Zhen etc., that Committee is the ranking
New York: Manchester University Press, 1990).