CONFIDENTIAL
HKCK 20/1 нек
14. B 5215/3 12 collawong 15.3 /17/3
[Sino-British Relations: Mr Hull's, and Mr Leahy's minutes
of 13 and 14 March]
1 6 MAR 1979
(aberaly worker wyn)
6
MOEX
PA
по
J19.7
RY
Taken
1. At the time of Mrs Williams' visit the Chinese were in a euphoric state and accepted financial commitments which they now find they cannot carry out. They are, in my view wisely, being much more cautious about entering into new obligations.
2. The question for us is whether it is in our national interest in these circumstances to subsidise the proposed exchanges.
I am sure that it is very much in our political interest to try to persuade influential and educated Chinese to take a more outward looking view. I am also sure that commercially we shall lose out to our competitors if we are not prepared to do as much as they do. We have a particularly valuable asset in the English language which it would be foolish not to exploit. The Secretary of State is likely to be tackled on this subject in Peking if we have not by then responded to the Chinese.
3. I agree that new money will be very difficult to obtain and that the obvious source is ODM, who could certainly find this money without causing any real effect on our general aid programme. However I fear that ODM, who refused to produce at official level a statement of their position, may argue against on grounds of principle,
viz
a.
China is an aid-donor not an aid recipient.
True but so is India (one of our major recipients) an aid donor. Chinese per capita income figures (around $400) are lower than those of many aid recipients.
b. Aid is not given to Communist countries.
Not true. We have given aid to Vietnam for training in English language. We also concluded a technical assistance agreement with Cuba.
C.
Aid should not be given to China because of its human rights
record. But wignificant improvemonta aro being made over hugan rights in China. We should encourage this process by helping them in educational programmes. This is in line with our aid policies to other countries with poor human rights records.
CONFIDENTIAL
/a.