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remember that on such matters the ideas were developed in
Hong Kong and then put as necessary to London rather than
imposed by London on Hong Kong. There were two aspects to
the development of local leaders: within the civil service and
amongst the public at large. On the former, but not the latter,
there could be "plans" in the bureaucratic sense. There were.
On both I knew that the Governor was paying a great deal of
attention to developing local talent, both within and outside
the civil service, so that there would be plenty of people
from whom to choose in the 1990s. Miss Lau said that the
Chinese had already selected Mr David Li (Bank of East Asia)
as a possible Chief Executive and had asked for British help
to give him the right background training and jobs. I said
this was nonsense. The Chinese had never asked us for such
help. Personally, I thought it made no
I thought it made no sense to talk about
selecting individual leaders years ahead of time.
8. I fear it is clear from this conversation that Emily Lau
has a good idea that papers have been handed over to the
Chinese which are in some way connected with the 1987 Review.
Furthermore, she seems to have the dangerously mistaken
impression that they are in some way an attempt to clear in
advance with the Chinese the content of the 1987 Review. If
she sticks to what we agreed during our meeting she will not
quote a "London view" to this effect in her article. But I shall be surprised if a reference to papers, a range of options, and advance consultation about the 1987 Review does
not appear in some form in one of her articles.
H K KO! |||
RECE VLE
23 AUG 1986
ساس
AB 2318
D C Wilson
SECRET
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