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Chinese attitude will have to change if the US position remains firm, and even if
the US do eventually agree to sell arms this does not exclude the possibility of
sales from the UK as well.
Credit and Aid
8.
Mean-
China clearly hopes to receive cheap loans either from individual Governments
or from multi-national agencies, and is reluctant to draw down offers to commercial
credit. Since the Japanese and Belgian loans, there have been no offers from other
countries (although the Danes have said that they would consider this in principle
if their money was tied to a suitable Danish project). Most countries are likely
to remain reluctant to enter into a competition to give cheap credit to China since
China's requirements are so vast that the donors would risk impoverishing themselves
through the competition. HMG's best policy is to continue to give no hope of aid
loans, but to continue to keep in mind the possibility of ATP assistance if and
when suitable projects arise. There are no such candidates at the moment.
while, we should continue to look at technical assistance (the UK already pro-
vides technical assistance to support educational exchanges, and is offering some
of her contribution to UNIDO for a pesticides project); and we shall also seek
to assure that British companies have the maximum opportunity to compete for busi- ness under the Japanese loans and loans offered by UNDP or the World Bank. Export
opportunities under the Japanese aid loan are now routinely publicised through
the EIS, and we were able to arrange for four Chinese groups which are selecting
equipment to be purchased under a World Bank loan, to come to the UK to meet rele-
vant British manufacturing companies.
Training
9.
The UK
This is another long term investment which could bring good rewards.
is involved in this through the Education Exchange Scheme administered by the British Council and assisted by aid funds, and also through CBI scholarships (ten for
China per annum), British Consultants Bureau secondments of Chinese consultants
to member companies, and training arranged by individual companies as part of a
anntrent