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UK.
Lord Goronwy-Roberts asked whether the Chinese Government was conducting surveys of its natural resources on its own without calling in outside expertise. The UK had considerable geological survey expertise. Mr Huang replied that up to now China had been self-reliant in this field. China was well advanced in geology and had large contingents carrying out field surveys.
20.
Dr Owen suggested that if there were no other bilateral points, Mr Huang might give an account of the situation in Asia. China had links with a number of countries, which would make her viewpoint particularly interesting. Dr Owen said he supported President Carter's decision to reduce the US military presence in South Korea. How did China see the situation? He would also welcome Mr Huang's views on relations between Cambodia and Vietnam; and between China and Japan. This last was of crucial importance both to the Chinese modernisation programme and to the stability of the region. ASEAN was also capable of contributing to the stability of the area and was moving closer both to Japan and the EEC.
21.
Mr Huang said that on Korea, China's consistent position was that it stood for the re-unification of Korea by peaceful negotiations between the North and South, free from outside interference. President Carter had announced his decision to reduce ground forces in South Korea but he continued with a two Koreas policy. China regarded the policy of splitting Korea as untenable and bound to fail. Dr Owen commented that it would take time for a policy like that to get going. A good start had been made. It was a case of a super power withdrawing from the area. Mr Huang said that China maintained that the UN Command in Korea should be dismantled and the US should withdraw all its forces. The US claimed that it must keep a military presence in order to maintain stability in North East Asia, but this was not conducive to stability in that area. The US had meanwhile massively strengthened the military capability of South Korea. This would lead to a more warlike Korea and thus to greater tension in the area.
After
2.
Mr Huang said that the situation in Indochina was not simply one of deterioration in relations between China and Vietnam and Vietnam and Cambodia. In essence it was the exploitation by the Soviet Union of the expansionist ambitions of Vietnam, which was using military oppression against Cambodia on a massive scale.
For a long time the leaders of Vietnam had harboured ambitions of forring a Great Federation of Indochina under Vietnamese control. the war of liberation, the Vietnamese got hold of arms worth $5/6 billion. This made them more arrogant and their ambitions revived. They already controlled Laos where they had 50,000 troops and many advisers. At the end of 1977 and the beginning of 1978 they launched military oppression against Cambodia to try to overthrow the Chinese Government by attack from without and subversion within. They were frustrated in their attempt to set up a pro-Vietnam Government in Cambodia, but were not reconciled to this setback, and were now preparing to launch a new military attack against Cambodia in
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/the coming