CONFIDENTIAL
maintained, Britain will need to look at a closening
relationship with China in a wider international context
which embraces other countries of immediate importance
to the UK. There is no question of undervaluing
China's importance; but we need both to be coolly
realistic and to keep the balance in our overall
relationships right.
3.
Irrespective of the way the Chinese order their
society, there is no alternative to treating as a world
power a country which is a permanent member of the UN.
has perhaps one-quarter of the world's population in a
territory the size of the United States and traditions
and resources which make her formidable even against
the background of enormous demographic problems.
Given the great differences in China's culture and her
history of self-containment, it is not surprising that the
West's, and Britain's, relations with her in the past
have often been unhappy. It is not long since China
effectively renounced an alliance with the country which
is still our main adversary. Memories of Korea and
Vietnam die hard; you yourself need no reminding of the
horrors of the Red Guard years. This makes the
friendlier face which China is now turning to the West
the more welcome and I believe we should respond to it,
while remembering that profound differences between
China's view of the world and our own are likely to
persist. As I see it "friendship" to the Chinese is
a diplomatic instrument, not an emotional commitment;
we cannot, for example, bexpected to play out our own
ole in