TNAG-1470-FCO40-1999-Visits-by-Chinese-officials-to-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 6

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CONFIDENTIAL

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REGISTRY

29 DEC 1986

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FM PEKING

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OFFICER

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Action Taken

INFO PRIORITY HONG KONG

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. STRY

HONG KONG TELNO'S 4121 AND 4163 AND YOUR TELNO. 2835 TO HONG KONG :

CHINESE VISITS TO HONG KONG.

1. I HAVE FOLLOWED THIS EXCHANGE OF TELEGRAMS WITH INTEREST. YOU AND

HONG KONG MAY FIND IT USEFUL TO HAVE MY ASSESSMENT OF ZHOU NAN'S

ROLE AND STANDING IN THE CHINESE SCHEME OF THINGS.

2. IN A CONVERSATION I HAD WITH WU XUEQIAN DURING THE STATE VISIT,

WU SAID THAT HE WAS NOT CONCERNED DAY-TO-DAY WITH HONG KONG

MATTERS. IT WAS JI PENGFEI AND ZHOU NAN WHO WERE. THIS SUGGESTED

TO ME, NOT FOR THE FIRST TIME, THAT ZHOU OFTEN REPORTS DIRECTLY TO JI, PERHAPS KEEPING WU GENERALLY INFORMED.

3. AT THE MINIMUM, ZHOU IS AN IMPORTANT ADVISER ON HONG KONG AND AN

IMPORTANT EXECUTOR OF, AND SPOKESMAN ABOUT ABOUT, POLICY IN RELATION TO HONG KONG. IN THE LATTER ROLE, HE MEETS ALL NON-CHINESE VISITORS TO PEKING WHO WANT A BRIEFING ON HONG KONG AFFAIRS. IN MY TIME, THIS CATEGORY HAS INCLUDED SEVERAL BRITISH BACKBENCH MPS AND JOURNALISTS. WHEN HONG KONG CHINESE ARE RECEIVED IN PEKING THEY ARE NORMALLY SEEN BY SOMEONE FROM THE HONG KONG AND MACAO OFFICE OF THE STATE COUNCIL. SO ARE MIXED PARTIES OF CHINESE NON-CHINESE, FOR EXAMPLE THE DELEGATION LED BY SIR PHILIP HADDON-CAVE WHICH VISITED PEKING IN OCTOBER 1934.

4. IN THE ROLE OF ADVISER, I AM SURE THAT ZHOU IS INFLUENTIAL.

I ATTRIBUTE THIS PARTLY TO THE FACT THAT HE IS THE SENIOR PEPSON

IN THE MFA WITH A DETAILED KNOWLEDGE OF HONG KONG AFFAIRS AND

·PARTLY TO HIS ABILITIES. MARIA TAM ONCE TOLD ME THAT HE HAD MADE

THE MOST EFFECTIVE SPEECH AT THE SCOND PLENARY SESSION OF THE

BASIC LAW DRAFTING COMMITTEE. AS YOU KNOW, HE IS INTELLIGENT AND

.ABLE TO THINK ON HIS FEET. HE ALSO MAKES HIMSELF EXPERT SPEAK

ABOUT ON THE MATTERS HE HOSTS.

5. WHEN IT COMES TO POLICY-MAKING, I WOULD NOT EXPECT ZHOU ́S VOICE

TO COUNT FOR MUCH LESS THAN THAT OF LI HOU. INDEED I WOULD

EXPECT IT TO COUNT MORE THAN THAT OF ANYONE ELSE BELOW THE LEVEL

OF JI PENGFIE ON ALL PRIMARILY DIPLOMATIC PROBLEMS. FROM THE

OBITER DICTA OF WU XUEQIAN AND SENIOR OFFFICIALS IN THE MEA,

HAVE THE IMPRESSION THAT HE IS REGARDED AS A PERSON OF GOOD

JUDGEMENT ON MATTERS OF DIPLOMACY IN GENERAL.

CONTIDENTIAL

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