CONFIDENTIAL
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BILATERAL ISSUES
20. The Prime Minister said that Chairman Deng Xiaoping and Premier Zhao had invited Her Majesty The Queen to consider paying a visit to China. The Queen was very happy to accept in principle. Her visits were already arranged for 1985, but she had reserved the second half of 1986 for a visit and was looking forward to it very much indeed. Premier Zhao said that China eagerly looked forward to the visit to be paid by Her Majesty in the second half of 1986. He suggested September as an ideal month to visit. The Prime Minister indicated that The Queen usually spent September in Scotland. She suggested, and Premier Zhao agreed, that dates be further discussed in consultation with Buckingham Palace.
21. The Prime Minister said that she herself would be delighted to welcome Premier Zhao to Britain in 1985, as early as he wished to come. She understood that he might be considering visiting Europe in June. Premier Zhao said that he looked forward to visiting Britain in June.
Britain
22. The Prime Minister said that she very much welcomed Premier Zhao's expressed wish that trade should grow faster. carefully studied China's plans for the modernisation of those industries in which Britain possessed a special expertise. The Prime Minister proposed that an official government trade dele- gation, under the leadership of Lord Young, should visit China in early 1985 to hold detailed discussions on how to expand Sino-British trade. Premier Zhao said that he would warmly welcome this delegation. March would be the best time as it would allow for the visit to be well prepared and would follow the Spring Festival Holiday. The Prime Minister agreed. The visit must go well. Lord Young would bring with him a party of very high level British businessmen.
BP
23. The Prime Minister said that she was very pleased that work in developing China's offshore oil and gas was going well. were participating in this and were prepared to do further work in the South China Sea. British oil companies probably possessed more expertise than any others in exploration and production work in harsh weather areas. Britain also possessed great expertise in the mining of coal. We possessed advanced mining equipment and our manufacturers were already in contact with China.
24. The Prime Minister said that progress was being made towards the establishment of the joint venture company for the Guangdong nuclear project. It was a very exciting project which the British Government wished well. We had done something about credit for it, making the best premium terms available. Premier Zhao said that the nuclear project joint venture would be not only thelargest China/UK joint venture but also the largest between China and any foreign country since inception of China's opening to the outside world. He hoped that both sides would cooperate to make it successful. GEC would be providing the generating equipment. Since this would be GEC's first experience in manu- facturing this type of generator, the Chinese hoped that the prices set would take account of this fact. Premier Zhao also
CONFIDENTIAL
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