DSR 11C
CONFIDENTIAL
25. Human rights are a factor in some prospective
British arms sales. No arms are sold to Chile or
South Africa. In other cases arms which could be used
for internal repression are not sold. China rates
poorly in human rights terms. But the Chinese have no
need for Western defence equipment for internal security
purposes and the kind of purchases they will generally
external
make have war-fighting rather than internal security
applications.
SECTION IV: COMMERCIAL CONSIDERATIONS
· 26. China's imports from non-Communist countries in
1976 were $4.8 billion; larger than Czechoslovakia's
or Hungary's, and less than Poland's. Japan's share
of this was $1.67 billion and the EEC's $1.5 billion.
Of the EEC total the UK accounted for only $125 million
(down $53 million from 1975) against German exports of
$623 million and French exports of $355 million.
United Kingdom now ranks tenth among China's non-
Communist trading partners.
55th most important market.
The
China in turn is Britain's
Two-fifths of UK exports
in 1976 were aircraft; the remainder was predominantly
iron and steel products and machinery. Details of
China's foreign trade and the British part in it are
set out in Annex I.
27. The United Kingdom's recent poor performance is
explained primarily by the inability of British firms
/to
CONFIDENTIAL
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