CONFIDENTIAL
HKCK 184!
Meeting with Commercial Counsellor, Chinese Embassy, London on 19 January 1978
at Shell Mex.
i
Those present:.
G T Rogers
CAIR, DOT
TH Stables
RC Samuel R Impey
CAIR, DOT FED, FCO CAIR, DOT
Liu Chin Sheng, Counsellor Chinese Embassy Shen Chao Chi, 1st Secretax Li Ping Tsai, Interpreter
Introduction
1
After the usual courtesies, Mr Liu explained the reason he had requested to pay a visit; namely Peking had asked him to seek our specific proposals following PUSS(CA&S)'s remarks to the Chinese Vice Minister of Communications that we could resolve the outstanding problem of the signature of the ASA by adopting the same solution that had been adopted for the Japan/China ASA.
Initialled ASA and Subsequent Air Services Events
2
Mr Rogers thought it would be useful to review the history of how the initialled UK/China ASA agreement came into being, and how events had subsequently developed. Mr Rogers explained that he had led the UK delegation which negotiated the initialled agreement. He considered the political considerations, including the Taiwanese issue, had posed the biggest problem in the negotiations. Both teams had, he felt, been very conscious of this and each had tried to find solutions to accommodate the other side's difficulties. The air services agreement which had been initialled represented a solution to all the issues; all that remained to be resolved were the formalities of signature.
3 Unfortunately these formalities had not been completed. It took several months before we discovered the Chinese apparently had difficulties over the Taiwan issue. He surmised signature had probably been delayed until the Japan/China ASA had also been negotiated, after which it had been suggested from Peking that we should make similar statements to the ones made by the Japanese at Chinese request concerning Taiwan. We had considered this action inappropriate. Therefore the initialled ASA had remained in abeyance, even though in the intervening period we had made various attempts to reach a mutually satisfactory solution.
Comparison between Japan/China ASA and initialled UK/China ASA
4
We had followed developments in Japan/China air services relations with interest from the time of the ASA negotiation in late 1973. It was noted that at Chinese insistence the Japanese had made certain public statements on the Taiwan issue. These had resulted in the cessation of scheduled services between Japan and Taiwan by the 3rd/4th freedom carriers. It was only after the Japanese had made a further public statement modifying their earlier statement so as to mollify the Taiwan authorities that air services between Japan and Taiwan had resumed.
5 We were not prepared to make a public statement similar to Japan's. We had made the UK's position vis-a-vis Taiwan perfectly clear in the declaration made in 1972 and furthermore we considered UK/China air services relations differed in certain important respects from the Sino-Japanese position. Under the terms of the initialled ASA CAAC would only operate scheduled services to London and whilst it was not of course mentioned in the ASA it was clearly implied at the negotiation
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