CONFIDENTIAL
HMG found some of the above copditions unacceptable as they would have been
likely to cause Taiwanese retaliation against Cathay Pacific Airways' very
important services between Hong Kong and Taiwan (worth £31m to CPA in 1976):
and the Chinese therefore declined to ratify the agreement.
3
In August 1975 an effort was made to go some way towards meeting the
Chinese by offering them assurances, on a confidential basis, that the UK do
not recognise CAL, as a state airline nor the insignia, emblem or flag that
it uses as those of a state'while any aviation link between the PRC and the UK
would be governmental and inter-state, the existing link between Hong Kong
and Taiwan is non-governmental and regional. However, in spite of our Ambassador's
strong urging that the Chinese accept these assurances, which we considered to be
quite as good as those accepted in the case of Japan, the Chinese turned them
down (in March 1976) explaining that their position was unchanged in insisting on
the 5 points in paragraph 2 above.
4
British Airways' interest in operating services to Peking has diminished
since 1973 because of the experience of other airlines' operations to China,
which have proved commercially disappointing. Nevertheless we would welcome
the conclusion of an Air Services Agreement so that flights could begin, without
further negotiation, once British Airways consider them commercially desirable.
5 At the ICAO Special Air Transport Conference in Montreal in April 1977,
British officials had informal contacts with the Chinese delegation.
When
it was mentioned that the Air Services Agreement negotiated in 1973 had not
been ratified, the leader of the Chinese delegation said that there should be
no difficulty over signature now, it is, however, not clear how much weight
should be attached to this statement given the informal context in which it
was made.
2
CONFIDENTIAL