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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
Telephone 01-
7/2
Mr Jannar Enterope
Enter ops. (HK/China) e7
Your reference
19
Peter Clark Esq British Embassy Peking
HKB 020/6
Our reference
Date
6 February 1989
Dear Peters.
SOCIAL STABILITY AND PARTY DISCIPLINE
N/T
1. Many thanks for your letter of 31 January. I am a little suspicious of Yu Lei's claim that the rise in crime can attributed to the transient population. I prefer the idea that not only are people better off, owning more consumer goodies which tempt others to steal them, but that success is now measured very much in material terms. Similarly, I am suspicious that a crackdown on crime along the lines of previous campaigns will have much effect. I detect widespread cynicism about these repeated calls for discipline, and the knowledge that connections protect you from severe punishment must give ordinary people a jaundiced view of law and order. I see too that you have noted that the communiqué issued after the meeting included little in the way of specific new measures to overcome rising crime. This suggests that the recent upsurge in crime has caught the authorities on the hop, and, like many of the economic problems now being faced, no one has much experience of how to tackle them.
12.
We very much take your point about likely Western interest particularly from Human Rights organisations which would be stimulated by a fresh crackdown on crime. You are right to remind us about this. Please keep up the flow of reporting on this particular issue, so that we might perhaps have some advanced warning if this does break.
Yas ever, Clare
Claire Smith (Mrs) FED
сс
UND
OPA
Mr. Wood, HKD
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