TNAG-1745-FCO40-2464-Visits-by-FCO-officials-to-Hong-Kong--including-visit-by-Lor-1988 — Page 12

FROM:

CHRIS PATTEN

DATE:

28 SEPTEMBER 1988

HKB 027/1

STRY

04 OCT 1988

KY

сс PS/All Ministers

PS/PUS

PS/Mr Caines

Sir Alan Donald, Peking

Sir David Wilson, Hong Kong Mr Ainscow

ODA Under Secretaries and

Heads of Profession

Mr Gillmore

Mr Mclaren

Mr Cooper

Mr Hum

Mr Graham-Harrison

Mr Machin

Secretary of State

VISIT TO CHINA AND HONG KONG

This was

a guinea a minute.

Nowhere has excited me

A visit to China is far better value than my thirty sixth country since joining the ODA. more or anything like as much for that matter. (I daresay that one would be less than normal not to find a fifth of humanity rather interesting!) Nowhere have my hosts been warmer or more welcoming.

2.

Its many unique qualities notwithstanding, China shares many characteristics of other developing countries. Its economy is still heavily agricultural; its infrastructure is inadequate; there are shortages of skills and, above all, there is poverty. At US$300 per annum, China's per capita income is still low. But there are no glaring gaps between rich and poor. It seemed to me that ordinary people were better off than counterparts in, say, India : not only in the cities but in what little I saw of rural areas people on the whole appeared adequately fed, clothed and

healthy.

CONFIDENTIAL

/3.

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