egistry (4)
0.
CURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret,
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
IVACY MARKING
CONFIDENTIAL
LETTER
DRAFT
To:-
Chancellor of the Exchequer
cc S of S for Education and Science
In Confidence
1.
Type 1 +
From
S of S
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
DSR 11
EXPANSION OF EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL RELATIONS WITH CHINA
You will have seen my minute to the Frime Minister
about the future direction of our relationship with China
in all its aspects. I am now writing about the Chinese
proposals for expanding our educational and cultural relations
2.
The general political background is set out in Peking
telegrams 469, 470 and 471 to the FCO on Sino-British
relations. These telegrams show that we are at an unusually
favourable juncture; that China is seeking to modernise fast
and is seeking assistance in a number of important fields
from the UK; that it is very much in our and Western interests
to respond fast and positively. By so doing we encourage the
development of a strong, stable and well-disposed China; by
refusing we risk the failure of the present enterprise and
the re-emergence of a more xenophobic or unpredictable China,
or in the more likely event of a UK refusal not having so wide
an effect, we leave openings, cultural and commercial, for
our Western friends and competitors to exploit to our detriment
Indeed, our competitors are already responding.
3.
China is now more important to us than she was in the
past and we are rapidly becoming more involved with her.
The importance is likely to grow, commercially as China
imports Western technology an equipment, politically as she
. takes a more active part in i ternational affairs, militarily
as her arms strength develo nd becomes more nearly
a.)
CONFIDENTIAL
/commensurate
Dd 427265 500M 5/77 905275