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benefit from his visit, and from the establishment of
personal contact between him and the Prime Minister. But
at the end of his visit we knew him little better than when
he arrived.
ASSESSMENT OF THE VISIT
9.
The Chinese are, we believe, well satisfied with the
tour as a whole and perhaps particularly with the British leg.
The exceptional effort put into Premier Hua's high-level
reception, the wide press coverage, and the genuine public
interest put China and Hua himself on the map. (It also
presumably gave Hua a useful boost at home.) In symbolic
terms it demonstrated the existence of some community of
interest between China and Western Europe and the
possibility of increased areas of cooperation.
Chinese view at least it also presumably served as a
salutary signal to the Soviet Union. The Chinese must
however have been reminded, as this point was reiterated
throughout the tour, that Western Governments do not entirely
share their interpretationof the international scene.
In the
10. For our part we have gained from any encouragement the
visit gave to moderate, outward-looking policies in China;
and from the exposure of the Chinese leadership, Premier Hua
in particular, to Western views and values. Both factors
will be essential for our long-term cooperation. In
bilateral terms Britain may also have benefited in Chinese
eyes from Premier Hua's professed feeling that Mrs Thatcher,
of all his European hosts, most closely shared China's
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/perception