5.
LORD COCKFIELD:
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Extensive coverage was given in major Chinese-language papers to the press conference by the Secretary of State for Trade, Lord Cockfield, on 12 April. The left-wing Ta Kung Pao played up in its headline the remark that the Sino-British ventures in the Guangdong nuclear power plant and South Sea oil exploration would bring many new opportunities for HK, while Wen Wei said the N-plant project offered Britain important investment opportunities. The two papers, together with major independent papers, also highlighted in their headings that Lord Cockfield would go to Beijing soon to have further discussions with Chinese officials, particularly on the N-plant. GEC would send a group of technologists to China for talks on the project. Lord Cockfield had also discussed ways of expanding two-way trade between Britain and HK.
6.
CHINESE PAPER ON HK'S ECONOMIC SYSTEM:
The Yangcheng Evening News of Guangzhou carried an article which praised the way Hong Kong introduced financial laws, many papers reported, quoting a Reuters despatch. The despatch saw the article as a sign that China did not plan fundamental changes in the territory's economic system when it regained sovereignty. The article said every new law was publicly announced, widely discussed and then revised. So long as the revisions were essentially in accordance with the wishes and principles of the authorities, all points of view were heard so that people were mentally prepared and obstacles to implementing the laws reduced. The paper said even though the capitalist legal system was a tool for protecting bourgeois democracy and freedom it was in the end a great advance from feudalist autocracy.
7.
CHINA FIRM SETS UP IN HK:
An entrepreneur in China, Mr. Wang Guangyang (64), has set up a private company, Ever Bright Enterprising Co., with its head office in HK. A Xinhua despatch quoted Mr. Wang as saying that he would come to HK for no other reason but to do business. The aim of his company was to promote the economic development of China and to work for the prosperity of HK's economy. Mr. Wang is managing director of the company and the brother of Guangmei, wife of the late president Liu Xiaoqi. Before his departure for HK, he gave a reception at the Great Hall of the People to envoys of six countries (Britain, France, West Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada) with which the firm hoped to do business. An editorial in the New Evneing Post said the firm formed by Chinese people, as disinct from other state-owned companies in HK such as China Resources, would have greater flexibility in attracting foreign investment and technology to China. The paper said both the Chinese government and private enterprises would like to make long-term investment in HK jointly with the British. Kung Sheung Daily News quoted sources in the US as saying that Dr. Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State, was an adviser to the company.
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