TNAG-1237-FCO40-1550-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 65

CONFIDENTIAL

TELELETTER

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RESEARCH DEPARTMENT FCO

R N PEIRCE ESQ PEKING

COPIED TO: RP MARGOLIS ESQ DPA HONG KONG

FCO TELNO 229 LORD SHEPHERD : FUTURE OF HONG KONG

1.

575

In your teleletter No 105 of 19 April you commented on the rather murky political background of Xu Jiatun. It is true that he was rehabilitated fairly early in the Cultural Revolution, but there is evidence that at least during 1976 he stuck his neck out some way on behalf of Deng Xiaoping. During the summer of 1976 he came under widespread poster attack in Nanjing, accused of being a manipulator in the Nanjing counter-revolutionary incident, and of having attempted to implement Deng's revisionist line. The Nanjing counter-revolutionary incident was a local equivalent of the more famous Tiananmen incident of April 1976. Such accusations need not be taken entirely literally, as they

as they were at that time stock phrases to be used against anyone under pressure from supporters of the gang of four. Nonetheless they do show that in the eyes of Deng's convinced opponents Xu was seen as a threat.

2. You will have seen the report in the Hong Kong Hsin Pao of 28 April on Xu's appointment, which is translated in SWB-FE-7322. This draws attention to Xu's career links with Peng Chong and Xu Shiyou both of whom have fallen under something of a cloud since Deng's ascendency.

3.

I am copying this letter to Mr Morris in HKGD.

RIO

Signed RF WYE

HKK 040/1

- 116 *.

kidne

- MAY 1983

PA

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