THE ORIGINAL HAS BEEN CLOSED UNTIL
THIS IS A COPY
UNDER FOI
CODE 18-77
1977 ON NOLLY
Mr McLaren
CONFIDENTIAL
41
Reference..
#kk184/2
RECEIVED IN RED TRY NO.
UK/CHINA AIR SERVICES AGREEMENT
1 1 MAY 1979
ivo
Frost
2.
These conditions would clearly have provoked a strong reaction from Taiwan, to the inevitable detriment of CPA's traffic to Taiwan, and since at the time we had no great interest in starting services to China, we allowed the negotiations to lapse.
In
3. At the beginning of 1978 however, the Chinese Embassy in London (apparently in the belief that they were responding to an initiative by a DOT Minister during the visit to London of the Chinese Vice Minister of Communications in 1977 - though our records of meetings during that visit contain no mention of such an initiative) indicated that the Chinese Government were willing to start talks again. the meantime, the growth in tourism to China has meant that BA are now definitely interested in starting services to Peking. Discussions were therefore started from which it has emerged that the Chinese are prepared to modify their five conditions. They have now agreed that the public statement should be limited to the following:-
"The People's Republic of China and the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland have handled the matter of regular air traffic between the two countries in accord- ance with the principles laid down in the 1972 Agreement between them on raising the level of their diplomatic relations to that of Ambassadors. The Aviation Agreement between China and the United Kingdom is an Agreement between two states, while the air link between Hong Kong and Taiwan is operated under non-governmental arrangements."
CONFIDENTIAL