CONFIDENTIAL
STATEMENTS BY CHINESE OFFICIALS ON THE FUTURE OF HONG KONG, SEPTEMBER 1982 - JUNE 1983
The following is a summary of public statements by the Chinese and statements made by them to non-official interlocutors. It does not include their statements in exchanges with British or other officials.
September 1982
a.
Hu Yaobang (General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party), in delivering the political report to the Party Congress on 1 September 1982 said, after referring to tasks to be undertaken in the next five years, that 'at the same time, together with all the patriotic people, our compatriots in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, and including Chinese nationals residing abroad, we shall pursue the great aim of reunifying motherland'. (Similar statements were included in Deng Xiaoping's speech to the Congress, as well as in the new Party Constitution).
b. An article in the Hong Kong magazine Pai Hsing, 16 September, quoted comments by a Ministry of Foreign Trade official on the future system in Hong Kong. He was reported as saying that the British Governor would be replaced by a Chinese Governor, that the Legislative Council and other bodies in Hong Kong would be reorganised and replaced by a 'Hong Kong People's Congress, which would be granted a higher degree of democracy'; apart from the heads of departments, administrative personnel would remain unchanged, while Peking would also select some officials to take up posts in Hong Kong; most laws would remain unchanged and political offenders would not be investigated and punished; Hong Kong would continue as a free port and the Hong Kong dollar would continue as an independent currency; freedom of expression, association and publication would be 'guaranteed' although registration would be necessary; Hong Kong residents would be permitted to travel abroad; however horse-racing would be banned. He was reported to have said that the Hong Kong and Macao issues now had priority over Taiwan so that Hong Kong and Macao could 'play an exemplary role for Taiwan by showing that prosperity could be maintained under Chinese rule'; and that the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee intended over the next five years to draw up detailed plans for regaining sovereignty over Hong Kong and to carry out these plans 'in the following five years'.
C. In an interview with the Hong Kong magazine Kuang Chiao Ching (Wide Angle), 16 September, Xiang Nan, First Party Secretary in Fujian was reported as saying that China would be 'very resolute' with regard to sovereignty and very prudent' as regards to methods of maintaining Hong Kong's status as a free port and financial centre and keeping Hong Kong prosperous.
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d. On 23 September, before a meeting with Mrs Thatcher, Zhao Ziyang said in answer to questions by reporters: 'China must recover sovereignty but I think that the question of sovereignty will not affect
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