TNAG-1036-FCO40-1286-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1981 — Page 26

布政司署

香港下亞畢道

本署檔號 OUR REF.:

TS 7/1126/46

來函檔號 Your ReF.:

R D Clift Esq

SECRET

39

GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT

LOWER ALBERT ROAD

HONG KONG

23 February, 1981

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RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO. 51 10 MAR 281

Hong Kong & General DeparDESK OFFICER REGISTRY

F CO

Jecte,

INDEX

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PA

Action Taken

$13.3. I fans 1612

CHINESE ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE FUTURE OF HONG KONG: THE VIEWS OF MR FUNG KING HEI

See (52

At the Governor's request I am enclosing a record of conversation I had at the end of last week with Mr Fung King Hei who asked to see me because he was worried about the tone of remarks made to him recently by two members of NCNA, including one who had recently returned from an extended stay in Peking and whose views, Mr Fung therefore thought, were likely to be an authentic representation of current thinking in Peking.

2.

Mr Fung is the Chairman of Sun Hung Kai Securities Limited, one of Hong Kong's largest stockbrokers and investment advisers as well as a growing force in the property world. They have an office in Peking and Mr Fung has been at pains to establish a relationship with China, going there on several occasions and seeing, amongst others, Vice-Premier Gu Mu.

3.

As you will see, it was the tone of the conversation as much as its precise content which seemed to worry Mr Fung. He said it was in marked contrast to earlier discussions on the same subject with a variety of Chinese officials, including NCNA.

to

4.

It is hard, on the basis of this isolated case, assess whether the tone of what was said by NCNA was a specific reaction to continued pressing by Mr Fung on a sensitive issue, or whether it represents, as he feared, a more fundamental change of attitude towards the question of Hong Kong's future. I am inclined to think that it was the former. But this incident does at least suggest, as we have seen on other occasions, that the Chinese are inclined to react sharply against what they see as pressure to say more than has already been said about Hong Kong's future.

CC

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(D C Wilson)

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RJT McLaren Esq (FED) M W Atkinson Esq MBE (Peking)

SECRET