TNAG-1435-FCO40-1918-Hong-Kong-leading-personality-Sir-Yue-Kong-Pao--businessman-1986 — Page 12

SPD10BM07

CONFIDENTIAL

HKK

010 STR

PS

1 0 DEC 1986

PS- 85/Mrbanion

Spur Barton

HUD

Y

а

DRUK OFFICER

PA

SIR GEOFFREY HOWE

cc Secretary of State

for Trade and Industry

Secretary of State for Employment

Mer Shutt My Jo

3

At the Prime Minister's suggestion, I accompanied K Pao last

week at the opening of the new University of Ningbo he has just donated to China. He was keen that I should report back to you and the Prime Minister. I also visited both the English and

Chinese Universities in Hong Kong, and a number of institutes

in Peking, where I discussed our student exchanges with China.

85

RA

I found the trip worthwhile educationally, politically, and commercially. Y K Pao was accompanied by several other big businessmen from Hong Kong ("the Ningbo Gang" as Deng Xiao-ping apparently calls them), by the Head of the NCNA in Hong Kong, and by a small group of British businessmen and bankers. The inauguration

of the new University went well: it is a good building, and

already has nearly 300 students. Y K Pao is genuinely popular

in his birthplace, both as the "local boy who made good", and

as a generous benefactor. His visit was big news, and he was

clapped in the streets.

He was well received by the Chinese Government by Vice Premier

Wan Li in Ningbo, and by Gu Mu, a Senior State Councillor with responsibilities for the 14 designated coastal cities, who entertained us in Peking. In discussion with Wan Li and Gu Mu, in my speech,

and in local press interviews, I stressed our readiness to take part in the economic development of the Ningbo area, which is

one of the 14.

-

Development is only just getting off the ground. But I was impressed

by the local officials younger, more technocratic and more

open than the party bureaucrats of recent times. The British

bankers saw real opportunities in the steel works, the new port

and telecommunications, though there were doubts about the adequacy

of the local infrastructure to carry a big expansion. They also thought that Y K Pao was asking for unrealistically large amounts

CONFIDENTIAL