TNAG-1622-FCO40-2236-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-China-1987 — Page 241

1. N South frings

2

PA Chain

67

/

сабр

RESTRICTED

TRIO

for A Wihon HILD

Arsement staff

R Fletcher-Cooke Esq

FED

F CO

o

British Embassy

11 Guang Hua Lu Peking

Ref: 014/1

27 February 1987

Mare tie is

Mr Sullivan

50

5

11

Without wanting into it, "X

part of

не

ů read tão

much

real concern

suggests a ССР

не

that the

Dear Dissed, NPC may senously detract from

LIU BINYAN

1.

CCP Supremacy

This

aught рас

in due comise.

hare

a bearing

abso Hitudes to direct election

in HK. Peng

Most

will

be worth

watchg Itadelines

4/3

The exorcism of the bourgeois liberal spirit of Liu Binyan continued in the People's Daily of 26 February when Zhen the Chinese Journalist's Association was reported to have held a meeting to criticise Liu and his dangerous ideas. Several important figures from the journalistic world came up with what by now were pretty formulaic, albeit exceedingly unpleasant, denunciations of Liu for his allegedly self-professed desire to expose the corruption of the Chinese Communist Party. of the arguments advanced against Liu were polemical and rhetorical rather than presentation of a convincing case. is of course not easy to present such a case, as not long ago, Liu, despite his outspoken attitudes, was at least officially sanctioned through the publication of his articles. Indeed the comparative lack of coherent attacks on his writings may be that they were not the aspect of his behaviour that really upset the authorities. Peter Thomson heard recently from Yu Enguang of Xinhua's International Department that Liu, who was a friend of Yu's, had been penalised not so much for his articles as for what he had said at about ten student meetings which he had addressed in the course of 1986 in Shanghai and Canton. Liu had begun to get invitations to address student meetings as a result of some articles he had written about universities and higher education. After a while he had begun to broaden his talks to include discussion of fundamental political questions. One of the ideas that he had put forward had been that political leadership should come from the National People's Congress. This, like Wang Ruowang's advocacy of a multi-Party system, was completely unacceptable to the authorities.

!EL

нив ого

ARIS

10 MAR 1987

RESTRICTED

2.