Permanent Member of the United Nations, a nuclear power and
an arms supplier is vital to international peace and stability. It is important that we should try to persuade
her to exercise this role responsibly. Other Western
leaders agree that China should be brought back into contact
with the mainstream of international society. Mr Kaifu
visited Peking earlier this month and Mr Andreotti is to go
in mid-September. And they do not share with us the
additional, most telling, dimension in our relationship responsiiblity for Hong Kong.
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We shall of course be taking advantage of this visit to
make very plain to the Chinese our views on human rights and
on the repression in China of what we regard as essential
personal freedoms. The growing pressure both from the East and from the West for greater democratic accountability and
respect for human rights will certainly not be lost on them.
But political change works on a long fuse, and China and Russia are very different. China has changed a lot in the
last twenty years but it still has far to go. That it will continue to change I am certain; though when and how is impossible to predict. The more market-orientated economic polices now being adopted will open the door to political
modernisation. Hong Kong will be an important motor for economic development. We only have to look at the transformation of the Southern province of Guangdong to which Hong Kong investment and enterprise have contributed
enormously.
All in all, I am in no doubt that it is right to proceed with this visit. I regard its significance as considerably enhanced precisely because it comes so soon after events in Moscow. We shall have a good story to tell the Chinese Government about our talks with Soviet and Russian leaders. We shall emphasise to the Chinese that the world is changing. Finally we will have done something solid to help the future prospects of Hong Kong. this will be no mean achievement.
Altogether
PJMAWL/4
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