SECRET
5 -
will be needed before the Secret ary of State goes to Peking. I am inclined to favour a two-step approach, starting with the NCNA here and then with you speaking to the MFA in Peking after giving time for our soundings out here to be reported and digested. Speaking to the NCNA alone is not likely to be enough and I do not think that the Chinese Embassy in London would be sufficiently aware of the nuances to make a good interlocutor.
20. The foregoing leaves a good deal of detail to be filled in, but we can do that once the general line is agreed.
21. I am sending a copy of this letter to Hugh Cortazzi.