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many of the ingredients come from China via the Colony.
Obviously China can ill afford to lose any of this income.
But we should not exaggerate, still less seek clumsily to
exploit her economic dependence, such as it is.
N.P.
In China,
I
There is a more important reason for sobriety.
economic considerations do not always predominate.
there
spent several years in China during the Cultural Revolution,
and watched extreme politics and chauvinism overrule common
sense and self-interest. The consequences were ugly and
expensive. We now have a new China, but a China in which
old demons are still slumbering as shown by the tone of
Peking's recent pronouncements on Hong Kong. I also once
took part in some tense, even brutal secret negotiations
(they later leaked) in an obscure restaurant in Hong Kong
where in which we and the mainland representatives grappled with
the problems of the overflow of the Cultural Revolution
into the Colony, during which more than 50 people died. Our
underlying attitude was that, while we ran the place, law
and order would apply to "Maoists" like anyone else. The
Chinese got the message on that occasion. But this experience,
and some pretty hair-raising events along the frontier at
the time, left me with a sober impression of the delicacy
of the balance on which the Colony rests. We are dealing
with a country which feels strongly that part of its territory
has been alienated by force, and is tempted to take it back.
economic
Obviously Chinese, self-interest must be part of our calculations.
2.
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