TNAG-1239-FCO40-1552-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 72

10

CONFIDENTIAL

The importance of technical secondary education was recognised,

Zhao announcing that it should account for over 40% of total

senior middle school enrolment for the next five years. The

rest of education however is likely to remain neglected.

previously announced date for achieving universal primary

education, 1990, was not repeated in Zhao's report.

The

19.

Culture did not do well. While Zhao still recognised that

it was necessary to overcome leftist errors of the past, he more

than counterbalanced this by his strictures against "crass

Since the Congress

commercialism" and "bourgeois liberalism".

there have been calls for more works on modernising the economy,

the reorganisation of industry and the fight against decadence,

and strong warnings to follow socialist ideology more closely

and to avoid writing in too personal a style. This is hardly

the encouragement needed for producing a rich cultural menu.

Crime and Security

20. In his Report on the Work of the Supreme People's Court,

the Court's President Jiang Hua, interestingly announced that

the process of trying the followers of Lin Biao and the Gang

of Four had now been completed. While it is no doubt sensible

to draw a line under these old scores, at least one high target

seems curiously to have escaped. This is Mao Yuanxin, the

Chairman's nephew, who was arrested at the same time as the

Gang of Four and subsequently pilloried mercilessly in the

CONFIDENTIAL

/press