TNAG-1185-FCO40-1487-Resettlement-of-Vietnamese-refugees-from-Hong-Kong-into-the--1982 — Page 79

GF 323

CONFIDENTIAL

2

機密

6.

HUANG's retirement had been expected. A chronic

Chinese kidney-ailment took him off the job twice in 1981. sources said he stayed on while the Foreign Ministry com- pleted a reorganisation.

7。

WU, the new Foreign Minister, had been deputy head of the Communist Party's International Liaison Department before becoming the senior Vice Foreign linister in May. Like HU, he has a background in youth work. He has travelled widely, has had extensive experience in Third World, African and East European affairs, and speaks fluent English.

გ.

ZHANG, the new Defence Minister, does not meet the announced target of generally having ministers aged 65 or less, but he fits squarely with the current emphasis on science. Besides serving as a Deputy Chief of Staff, he is also Chairman of the Science and Technology Commission for

National Defence.

9.

The appointments of WU and ZHANG had been expected at the 1982 (ie 5th) session of the National People's Congress. Instead, Xinhua said, they were decided by the Congress' Standing Committee.

Comment: 1) Although WU Xueqian (0702/1331/6197) speaks

English and has travelled widely, he is more familiar with Party work than foreign affairs. In the fifties he was in charge of the International Liaison Department of the Communist Youth League, at a time when HU Yaobang was the CYL's First Secretary. He was appointed a Deputy Director of the Central Committee's International Liaison Department (ILD) in May 1978. In May this year he replaced HAN Nianlong as the senior Vice Foreign Minister, over the heads of ZHANG Wenjin and GONG Dafei. Whilst in the ILD WU was noted as handling relations with the communist parties of Eastern Europe and observers believe that his appointment is intended to serve China's policy of main- taining a balance between relations with the Soviets and the Americans.

2) GENG Biao was dropped from the Central

Committee at the 12th National Party Congress in September and his name appeared on the

CONFIDENTIAL

機密

/list