CONFIDENTIAL
PROVINCIAL VISIT IN CHINA
1.
The options are limited by the time available (1/2 days maximum) and the need to travel on to Tokyo. Those we have considered in consultation with the Embassy are:
(a)
Shanghai: with the possibility of a side trip to Hangzhou or Suzhou: Shanghai would not be an
original choice and would not be particularly interesting for any members of the press
accompanying the Secretary of State. Mr Parkinson will have been there less than 3 weeks earlier (for a British scientific instruments exhibition from 17-20 March). But there are strong arguments in its favour:
i
ii
iii
it is China's major industrial city and the most important political and cultural centre apart from Peking. Though there would be no specific business to discuss a call would be arranged on the Mayor (assuming he was in Shanghai) for a general exchange of views;
there is a small British community (bankers, teachers and students) and BP have a team based in Shanghai in connection with their off-shore oil exploration programme. A meeting with the Secretary of State would give them encouragement;
if time allowed a visit could be arranged to Fudan university (which has 4 British post- graduate students and expects to receive about 10 undergraduates a year from the autumn of 1980 through a link with Leeds) or Jiaotong university (which has 4 British Council lecturers and is keen to develop links with British universities). Since the prospects for commercial co-operation are currently poor, there would be advantage in emphasising our interest in developing contacts and exchanges in the educational and scientific fields;
iv if it is decided to establish a consulate in
Shanghai a visit there would be appropriate;
V
an optional extra could be a side trip to Hangzhou (a lake-side city with many ancient temples) or Suzhou (a pleasant town of canals and traditional gardens). The choice might be dictated by whether Lord Carrington visited either of these places on his last trip to China. There are various ways in which such a trip might be fitted in:
the Embassy would need to investigate the logistics eg whether the Chinese would make a special aircraft available or allow the VC 10 to be used.
CONFIDENTIAL
/(b)
Page 105Page 106