TNAG-2142-FCO40-3061-Hong-Kong-Port-and-Airport-Development-Strategy-(PADS)-1990 — Page 61

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financial study which went into as much detail as possible when it was produced in mid-1989. Mr Maude has now given the Chinese Ambassador a short briefing paper, which we hope

will have reached the Chinese leadership by the time of the

visit.

3. The Chinese are now evaluating the information we have

given them. Zhou Nan told the Governor on 20 June that a working group had been established in Peking to study the Hong Kong Government's plans in detail. The Chinese continue to show misgivings about the cost of the project and the possibility that it might impose a heavy debt burden

on the SAR Government. They have also questioned whether

the project needs to be so ambitious in view of their own plans to open a new airport in Shenzhen in 1991 and the availability of sites for a container port in the region of

Shenzhen.

4.

At their meeting on 20 June, Zhou Nan asked the Governor

whether the location of the airport at Chek Lap Kok was

final. According to an SCMP article of 24 July, a team of

technical experts from Peking visited Hong Kong at the end

of June to discuss alternative and possibly cheaper sites

for the airport with their proposers eg Nim Wan in Deep Bay

(proposed by some academics), Heiling Chau (proposed by Gordon Wu) and continuing to use Kai Tak for short-haul

flights while building a smaller airport for long-haul

flights. The Chinese are also suspicious that one of the motives behind the plan is to provide lucrative work to

British firms, paid for out of Hong Kong Government funds,

before 1997.

5.

The Hong

It is possible that Chinese institutions such as CITIC,

China Resources and the Bank of China will wish to

participate in the various projects in due course. Kong Government have already seen some evidence of interest

in relation to Port Terminal 8 and the West Kowloon

reclamation.

But pressing, during Mr Maude's visit, for a

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