TNAG-0742-FCO40-946-Relations-between-China-and-Hong-Kong-1978 — Page 121

CONFIDENTIAL

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HKK

oud/s48 Letter

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(iv)

etter TS 7/1162/46 V of 2 December 1977).

It says that Liao was in effect repeating that part of the Chinese view of Hong Kong which emphasises maintaining the status quo while the main issue remains unresolved. The article then goes on as follows: "Naturally, 'maintaining the status quo' is not unconditional. There is

a sort of tacit political understanding, i.e. that the other side (Britain) will respect the wishes and interests of the Chinese Communists; in this two items are that infiltration by the Soviet Union should resolutely be prevented and that the activities of the Chiang side should be limited. We believe that, if Britain acts on these two items, it will not be difficult to maintain the status quo for a comparatively long time. In actual fact Britain is already acting in this way".

"Raising the level of the leading Chinese Communist operative in Hong Kong means raising the level of United Front7 work, raising the level of work against Taiwan, raising the level of the struggle against the Soviet Union, raising the level of Sino- British relations and raising the level of economic work".

4.

The article then concludes with an interesting argument about the Soviet Union possibly trying to use disruption as a means of dealing with Hong Kong. It maintains that neither Britain nor China nor the people of Hong Kong want such disruption: they want stability. In other words, those who work for stability are carrying forward the struggle against the Russians; a reassuring doctrine for us.

5.

We have written before about the status of Cheng Ming. (My letter of 2 December already referred to and Iain Orr's letter of 29 May 1978 to Susan Pares in Research Department not to all.) All we are in a position to say definitely is that it has the stamp of official approval to the extent of being sold in Communist bookshops which do not, as you know, have any liberal views about selling items of which they disapprove. The main influence behind it seems to be a former employee of the Communist newspaper, Wen Hui Pao. All this shows that the journal is at least on the fringes of the Party world. It does not prove that everything it contains is official Party policy. For what it is worth, the Americans here think that Cheng Ming is run by a group whose essential characteristic is being pro-Teng. They are convinced that the editors have access to at least some Party briefing. Whatever its exact credentials, I think we can assume that on such an

/contd...

CONFIDENTIAL