CONFIDENTIAL
taxes substantially to have an impact unlikely. So we are left with borrowing: but the Chinese have warned us off borrowing, at JLG XVI. Perhaps the one ray of sun-shine in this is Lu Ping's apparent suggestion that borrowing would be a better course of action. He is quoted as saying that the Government could resort to measures such as loans, private sector participation and the issue of bonds to raise funds: "the use of the reserves should be the last resort". But I think I may be clutching at straws.
моложе
M V Stone
✓
Mr Burns
1.
I have very little to add to Mr Stone's very comprehensive analysis of Lu Ping's comments on the airport project.
2.
A
I am sure that many people in Hong Kong have found Lu Ping's interventions extremely disturbing and an unwarranted interference in the domestic affairs of the territory. number of people made this point to me in Hong Kong.
Bing's
3.
On the other hand, we must recognise that the Chinese would maintain, and quite possibly genuinely believe, that Lu Ping's interventions reflect a desire to look after the interests of the future Hong Kong SAR, in which they consider they have a proprietary interest.
4. They may have a point. But the danger is that if the Chinese get into the habit of making statements of this kind in the next 6 years, Hong Kong people will conclude that this is merely a foretaste of what they intend to do after 1997. If there is a general perception in Hong Kong that it is unrealistic to expect a post 1997 government to act with a higher degree of autonomy and decide policies on its own, this would serve further to undermine confidence in the principles of the Joint Declaration.
5. Interventions by Chinese officials, both on the airport and on other issues, are likely to increase steadily as 1997
I fear that we and Hong Kong are just going to approaches. have to learn to live with them.
ARPaul
A R Paul
31 December 1990
BELLAKC
CONFIDENTIAL
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.