HKC040/4.
RECEN
Mamajon
17/12
INDE
¡Y
02 JAN 1991
BRO
105
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
London SWIA 2AH
Telephone: 071-
Sir P Cradock 10 Downing Street London
6 December 1990
far with ref. (huture genered?)
fm, 7/12
Jew Sir Pary,
CONTEMPORARY CHINA INSTITUTE
W95
Thank you for your letter to Hugh Davies of
12 November about the Contemporary China Institute's (CCI) proposal for a new research project on the relationship between China and Hong Kong up to and beyond 1997. I am replying in Hugh's absence in China. I apologize for the delay in doing so. The Tian Zengpei visit pushed virtually all other work on one side. We have consulted RAD and HKD here and Sir D Wilson with whom Dr Ash has already been in touch about this proposal.
The CCI under Dr Ash is a worthy and responsible institution. RAD already has a good relationship with Dr Ash with whom they have for several years organised and funded an annual seminar on China.
Current
Dr Ash's project seems worthwhile. political uncertainties may make this a difficult time to get such a project going, and the current decline in the China market may make commercial funding for the project more difficult to find. But I do not feel we need let that consideration discourage us from supporting the idea in general terms. You may wish to welcome the proposed emphasis on legal and economic aspects of the relationships. Not only will this give a welcome practical and focussed character to the work but it may help with funding. The Governor has commented that lofty academic discussion about an idealised view of Hong Kong as a continuing bastion of Western values is unlikely to produce anything of worth. It would thus be worth
/encouraging
No comments yet.
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