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lamentation that Martin, the French Ambassador in Peking, had now broken off all contact with him since, in answering questions after a historical lecture at a Peking Embassy he had said something critical about Dumas's comment that normalisation of relations with France required certain conditions to be fulfilled by China.)
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He also said that both you and I seemed to be more optimistic about the future of Hong Kong than the Chinese leaders. I told him they had it in their power to make the future of Hong Kong a success or otherwise.
It was
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Professor Zhang asked me what advice I would give to Chinese leaders on handling Hong Kong. I summed it up in a philosophy of "wu wei er wei" - action through inaction. Hong Kong flourished most when allowed to get on by itself. People here were very Southern Chinese and tended to react and say things emotionally. important not to over-react in turn nor seek to run things from a distance. It was also important to take with a pinch of salt lobbying efforts by those with vested interests or grudges. (Such lobbying in London as well as Peking increased with ease of communications).
In turn I asked what advice he would give us. answer was: Be open: explain things carefully to the
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Chinese.
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The
In addition to the above, Professor Zhang said a good deal about change in the Governorship in 1992. I told him that it was necessary to deal, sometime before April, with speculation about what happened at the end of my five years. If there was to be a change before 1997, there was much to be said for giving the new person long enough to get properly settled in.
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Song
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Governor
27 January 1992
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