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CONFIDENTIAL
6.
Qian Qichen, appointed Foreign Minister in April, soon became the symbol of Chinese diplomacy 1988-style. Confident, plain-speaking, intellectually up with all the trends, equally tough with everyone when necessary, he has rather eclipsed his predecessor Wu Xueqian, who moved into the post of Vice Premier. In practice, I suspect that an informal group of top leaders still affects policy more than any bureaucratic structure, with Deng, Zhao and Li Peng all looking for and having found personal roles to play in what must be one of the most satisfactory areas of business for the Chinese leadership at present.
7.
For us, this was a successful year in which further steady progress has been made towards implementing the Joint Declaration and securing Hong Kong's future. The beginning of the year saw the resolution of our difficulties in getting the Chinese to accept the introduction of an element of direct elections to LEGCO in 1991. The fact that they finally agreed was largely due to the skilful way in which the Governor of Hong Kong presented our case during his visits to Peking at the end of 1987. The Governor's further visit in November 1988 following visits by the Chief Secretary in May and Lord Glenarthur in June, reinforced by your own meeting with Qian Qichen in New York in September, secured a broad measure of agreement on the modalities for the formation of the first SAR government. The Governor has already forged a relationship with Chinese leaders and senior officials, including Prime Minister Li Peng, that augurs well for cooperation in the years to come and a smooth transition in 1997. We were successful in maintaining the dialogue between Chinese/UK experts on the drafting of the Basic Law. The process of educating Hong Kong and mainland officials in each others systems has gone well. The Chinese leadership appear to be quite content with the way things are moving. Vice Foreign Minister Zhou Nan's acceptance of the Governor's invitation to visit Hong Kong in March 1989 is a reflection of this. His projected visit to the UK in April 1989 is also to be welcomed. These visits should boost our common efforts to foster confidence in Hong Kong and increase cooperation generally between the British and the Chinese governments.
8.
Our bilateral relations with China have never been better. We have had visits from six British ministers, covering a wide range of portfolios. Exchanges at professional level on Civil Service reform, legal development, and many other areas, in line with our wish to have a multi-faceted dialogue with the Chinese have flourished. As for our other objectives in 1988, I have already discussed Hong Kong, where progress continues in the main satisfactorily. Vietnamese boat people will give Hong Kong, Britain and China continued headaches for some time to come, though a solution to the Cambodian problem may in time ease matters.
Withe
CONFIDENTIAL
19.
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