TNAG-1256-FCO40-1589-Third-countries-and-the-future-of-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 82

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-After British Lease Expires in '97: Zhao

China Intends to Reclaim, Rule H.K.

BEIJING (UPI) Chinese said. Premier Zhao Ziyang affirmed Friday that China intends to reclaim and rule Hong Kong after a British lease on the colony expires in 1997.

In a toast marking com- munist China's 34th an- niversary, Zhao also said he hoped for a "steady develop ment" in Sino-U.S. relations ⚫ and the eventual normalization

of Sino-Soviet relations.

Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Leonid Ilyichev returns to Beijing next week for another round of Sino-Soviet normalization talks that comes hot on the heels of a visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger..

"We hope there will be a steady development of Sino- U.S. relations in keeping with the principles laid down in the agreements between the two sides," Zhao said, alluding to Washington's promise, con- tained in an agreement signed last year, to reduce arms sales to Taiwan.

"We look foward to the removal of the existing ob- stacles in Sino-Soviet relations and to the normalization of relations," he added...

China maintains that relations with the Kremlin, frozen for more than 20 years, cannot be normal until Moscow removes three major "ob- stacles" by withdrawing from Afghanistan, ending support for the Vietnamese occupation of Kampuchea and easing ten- sions along the Sino-Soviet border.

But Zhao's firmest foreign policy remarks concerned Hong Kong, the capitalist enclave that China intends to reclaim when the British lease on 90 percent of the territory expires.

"The Chinese government': position on the question of Hon! Kong is known to everybody Our firm and unshakable polic is to resume the exercise of ou soverei y while maintainin the prosperity and stability ( Hong Kong." Zhao said.``

A fourth round of Sino-Britis talks on the future of Hong Kor ended in Beijing last week wi China rejecting London suggestion that British ministration continue aft sovereignty passes to Chir sources familiar with the ta

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The talks resume next month and Zhao, by stressing that China intends to "exercise" actual sovereignty, appeared to underline Beijing's deter mination that British rule must end, observers said.

On the domestic front,, Zhao said an anti-crime campaign that has resulted in thousands of arrests and executions."has dealt heavy blows at

criminals.".

China also "will continue to to take vigorous measures prevent and counter moral pollution by decadent bourgeois ideology," he said.

Touching on the economy. Zhao said agricultural output should "surpass the all-time high record of last year" despite "the adverse factor of flood and water-logging over large areas of the country."