CONFIDENTIAL
2.
Most senior Chinese visitors to Hong Kong are passing through on their way to somewhere else and are persuaded to stay on for a day or two. But some do respond to invitations and I am sure that it is right that they should continue to be issued. The list now in hand looks to me to be a good one and I agree with the draft telegram.
3. On a point of detail, I do not think there is any risk that an early invitation to the new MFA Vice Minister responsible for Hong Kong would be seen as a
as a "snub" to his predecessor, Zhou Nan. Zhou was invited to Hong Kong immediately after the signature of the Joint Declaration and several efforts were made to get him there before he finally did so last year. He could not therefore object to an invitation to his successor, though he might not want to have him on his patch until he has been in the saddle for rather longer.
4.
It might be worth adding that the various contacts described in this submission are supplemented by a host of working-level contacts between the Hong Kong Government and their local counter- parts in Shenzhen and Guang Dong. These have been built up progressively over the past twelve years and were not seriously interrupted by last June's events in Peking.
4 May 1990
Cc: Mr Gillmore
Mr Davies, FED
Mr Walker, Research Dept Miss Marsden, HKD
CONFIDENTIAL
RJT McLaren
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