CONFIDENTIAL
how attractive the zones were to
foreign investment. He
personally believed that the Chinese were clever enough to find out how to attract foreign investment to these areas and to implement the appropriate measures. He also thought that the Chinese were basically realistic. He understood that by the year 2000, they were aiming at raising personal income from $250 GNP per head per year to around $1000. This would be difficult, especially given population growth, but it was not excessively ambitious. The Chinese knew they could not attain some of their wider objectives. Mr Luce asked whether the Japanese would encourage the development of a mixed economy in China through the establishment of joint ventures. Mr Matsunaga replied that the Japanese government saw joint ventures as particularly important if Japan's economic relations with China were to develop further. They were telling the Chinese that if they wanted Japanese private companies to invest in China, then the economic environment there would have to be
made more attractive.
9. On the question of Chinese perceptions of Japan, Mr Matsunaga did not think they saw their relationship purely in economic terms. Chinese leaders were interested also in political ties. When Hu visited Japan last year, he had made a particular effort to establish personal, even family relations with
Mr Nakasone. Other Chinese leaders showed similar intentions. This indicated rather different objectives from purely economic
ones.
Hong Kong
10. Mr Luce said he was grateful for the Japanese government's support for the Hong Kong agreement. The degree of detail that the agreement contained would be a considerable reassurance to the Hong Kong people, as would the fact that every point in the agreement would be enshrined in the Chinese government's basic law which would in effect be the constitution of Hong Kong. The British Government had been particularly keen to obtain these objectives in negotiation with the Chinese government. The fact that the agreement was internationally binding was
CONFIDENTIAL
/also
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.