TNAG-2287-FCO40-3290-Chinese-personalities-involved-with-Hong-Kong-1991 — Page 4

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CONFIDENTIAL

137075 MDTTAN 9439

4. WE TALKED BRIEFLY ABOUT HONG KONG. I TOLD HIM I THOUGHT HE WOULD FIND BUSINESS CONFIDENCE HERE MUCH HIGHER, PARTICULARLY SINCE THE AGREEMENT ON THE AIRPORT. THE WAY SOUTHERN CHINA WAS DEVELOPING, AND ITS ECONOMIC INTER-RELATIONSHIP WITH HONG KONG, WAS ALSO A POSITIVE FACTOR. WHEN HE REFERRED TO PROBLEMS WITH OUR NEW LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, I TOLD HIM THE NEWCOMERS NEEDED TIME TO SETTLE DOWN. MEANWHILE, IT WOULD BE BEST IF CHINA AVOIDED OVER- REACTING I SOMETIMES WONDERED IF THOSE IN PEKING DEALING WITH HONG KONG WERE NOT OVERLY WORRIED BY ALARMIST REPORTS THAT THEY WERE BEING DELIBERATELY FED BY SOME OF THEIR FRIENDS IN HONG KONG. JI COMMENTED THAT, ALTHOUGH THE DIRECTOR OF THE NEW CHINA NEWS AGENCY, ZHOU NAN, SHOULD BE ABLE TO PUT THINGS IN CONTEXT, HE TENDED TO BE A PERSON VERY CONCERNED ABOUT HIS OWN FUTURE. A PREVIOUS DEPUTY DIRECTOR, QIAO ZONGHUAI, HAD BEEN MORE STRAIGHTFORWARD IN HIS REPORTING.

5. BEFORE HE LEAVES, I AM ARRANGING FOR JI TO BE GIVEN A HELICOPTER TRIP ROUND THE TERRITORY. HE LAST DID THIS IN 1989 WHEN HE WAS STILL AMBASSADOR IN LONDON. I TOLD HIM THAT HE COULD SEE HOW MUCH HONG KONG IS STILL GROWING AND COULD PASS ON THE RIGHT SORT OF MESSAGES TO BUSINESSMEN HE MET IN NEW YORK.

WILSON

mill have Stoned up: the Gov

hother!

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