TNAG-2489-FCO40-3621-Leading-Chinese-personalities-involved-with-Hong-Kong-1992 — Page 6

CODE RAD

8

HKS CONFID

НКС 01013

CONFIDENTIAL

RO

32

Mr Davies, Far Eastern Department

QI HUAIYUAN

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Reference

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1. You asked for any comments on the value of using

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Qi Huaiyuan as an entrée to Li Peng. It seems to me that this is certainly a contact worth following up, but it is difficult sitting in London to get a proper feel for whether this would be an effective means of short-circuiting the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office in getting access to Li Peng.

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2. Qi's formal title is Director of the Office of Foreign Affairs of the State Council. This puts him on the same institutional level as the Director of the HKMO, Lu Ping. understand that there may well be some institutional rivalry between the two organizations as suggested in David Coates' teleletter to you of 22 May. Hong Kong is a subject on which there must be some overlap in Chinese institutions and one would expect that the Foreign Affairs Office of the State Council would feel on occasion that it had legitimate input to make, while the HKMO might well feel that its territory was being trespassed on. In political terms, Qi is a somewhat more heavyweight figure than Lu Ping as he is an Alternate Member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

3. Qi was appointed to his present office in September 1991. His predecessor, Li Shuqing, had been, as the Americans suggest, a rather lack-lustre figure. Both Qi and Liu had been Vice-Ministers of Foreign Affairs before being appointed to the State Council Foreign Affairs Office but, of the two, Qi seems to have been a rather more forceful and successful figure. One of the reasons, apart from Liu's being well over retirement age, for Qi's appointment may well have been well to give a boost to the activities of the Foreign Affairs Office.

4.

Although we do not have a great deal of information on the activities of State Council offices such as the Foreign Affairs Office, I would tend to agree with the general tenor of the Russian assessment of its role as reported in Mr Coates' teleletter. It does seem likely that the Office would play a co-ordinating role between the various government departments that have foreign affairs responsibilities and acting as a channel for submission of documents to the Premier. If it is true that Qi's office is close to that of Li Peng that would ease his access. Our records of Qi's activities have shown that he has accompanied Li Peng on foreign trips, for example to Europe in January this year, and he has also been present at a number of Li Peng's meetings with foreign visitors. In fact, almost his publicly reported appearances have been in the company of Li Peng since he assumed his present office. I attach a copy of his Biographical Note which shows that he has a wide range of experience in foreign affairs matters and which would tend to confirm the Russian judgment that he is more than mere decoration and is well informed on subjects under discussion.

CONFIDENTIAL