CONFIDENTIAL
Secrets at State
of
104
A word
FROM:
DATE:
SIR P CRADOCK
14 November 1984
نو
Private Secretary
PRIME MINISTER'S VISIT TO PEKING
HKK040/57
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
2 2 NOV 1984
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
PA
ACT
Fr 2014
1. I understand that the Secretary of State has been approached
by Mr Prior with the suggestion that the Prime Minister might take with her a party of businessmen on her visit to Peking, and that he has had a preliminary discussion with the Prime Minister about
the idea.
2. I have serious misgivings about this idea, on
grounds:
(a) The overriding reason for the Prime Minister's
visit to Peking is to sign the Hong Kong Agreement
and thereby give substance to it. It is most
important from a presentational point of view in
Hong Kong that this be kept at the centre of the
stage. If she were to go with a party of
businessmen it would lend colour to the claim that
we are prepared to neglect Hong Kong's interests in
pursuit of British commercial interests in China,
and indeed that we may have concluded some deal along these lines with the Chinese of which we are now only seeing the quid quo pro. The fact that we have an excellent Agreement and a good Hong Kong
response to it would not preserve us from these accusations and they could do a lot of damage in
Hong Kong. The Guangdong nuclear project, as the Governor has pointed out, is a particularly high risk area from this point of view, and it is quite
likely that if we did attempt to push it through
in time for the visit there would be a direct clash
with ExCo, who are concerned in one aspect of it.
(See the two attached telegrams from the Governor).
.en
CONFIDENTIAL
/(b)
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