TNAG-2769-FCO40-3986-Hong-Kong-and-the-media-interviews--press-briefings-and-the--1994 — Page 83

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29 DEC 1993

KECMISTRY

We understand that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Peking have been telling journalists that the BBC Office in Peking will be closed down on Tuesday 21 December and its UK staff expelled. This story has come from two separate journalists here, who have spoken directly to journalists returning to Hong Kong from Peking.

2. The MFA reaction is apparently a direct response to the forthcoming Timewatch programme on Mao which we understand is due to be shown on Monday 20 December in the UK. The reports indicate that Chinese Government anger about the programme focuses primarily not on revelations about Mao's sex life, but about suggestions that incidents of cannibalism took place during the Cultural Revolution and that Mao endorsed these.

3. Resident Clerk: Please pass to News Department.

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