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Minister as head of the State Publications Administrative Bureau under
the State Council.
6 It is believed that Wang Kuang is ultimately or directly responsible
to Liao Chengzhi (Liao Ch'eng-chih), the head of the Overseas Chines)
Affairs Office of the State Council in Peking, and consults this office
on matters of major importance affecting Hong Kong. Liao has a long
association with Chinese affairs. He served in Hong Kong as a
representative of the CCP between 1937 and 1941. From 1947 until
early 1949 he was a Secretary of the CCP South China Bureau based in
Hong Kong. Soon after the Communist forces captured Peking in 1949, he
went there and served briefly as a leading official of NCNA. In
October 1949 he became a Vice-Chairman of the Commission for Overseas
Chinese Affairs, succeeding his mother as Chairman in 1959. Liao
disappeared from public life for four years during the Cultural
Revolution, but in April 1978 was made head of the. newly established
Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council.
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The Director of NCNA in Hong Kong also maintains close contact with
the authorities in Guangdong. It seems likely that the Provincial Party
Committee acts as a liaison between Hong Kong and Peking. A former
Director of NCNA in Hong Kong (from 1958 until the end of 1977), Liang
Weilin, is now a Vice-Chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee.
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"
Although Hong Kong Government policy prevents the local NCNA
using wirless communication with stations in China, it does have a
direct tdex link to Peking. With the agreement of the Hong Kong
Government and technical assistance from Cable and Wireless (Hong Kong),
a direct link to Guangzhou is under consideration.
The Hong Kong
Government have agreed to NCNA's operating a cypher telex link.
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80280 Dd 532113 2001/ 2/79 SIS
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