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Nevertheless he thought that the Chinese diplomatic system allowed very little scope for initiative by officials,
particularly at junior grades.
4.
I made a particular pitch to Mr Dong about the
importance for confidence of a very full demonstration by the
PRC that it intended to allow proper autonomy for the HK SAR.
This would require great restraint by the Central Government
and also by provincial and other organisations. But it was
essential for domestic and international confidence. I also
said that I sometimes had the impression that some Chinese officials believed that the UK had an interest in trying to
retain some kind of "residual colonial influence" in HK after
1997. This arose from a misunderstanding of the present
British relationship with HK and the real UK interest here.
This was not that of a conventional colonial power but of a
major trading nation which, like other countries, needed to see
HK continuing on the same lines as before. Mr Dong commented that he understood this; but surely as the colonial power, the UK had particular commercial interests here, eg. the HK and
Shanghai Bank. I said the interests were there but were not
specially favoured because of the colonial relationship.
5.
I asked Mr Dong for his impressions of internal events in China. He said that he believed Zhao Ziyang had got into an
advantageous position, in that if things went well he could take credit but if they went badly he could put at least some
of the blame elsewhere.
6.
so and
Mr Dong will be going into China (Guangdong, Hunan and
Peking) in about two weeks time and will remain there until
early June. He will then come back to HK for a week or
go back to London on 9 June. He intends to give up his
presidency of the students union for his final acadamic year in
London because it is taking up too much of his time. He has
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