would be regarded as a foreign National.
(i) English will continue to be widely used and English
education will continue.
to
During the discussion Mr LU listened with great fortitude Arthur Watson's long paper on the problems of agreement officers. Arthur made his points well and am sure they were noted properly. The meeting ended at 1750 and we then were taken to the Beijing Hotel for a dinner hosted by Mr. LU Ping. During the dinner the question of Advisers was raised and LU Ping was asked what the PRC meant by the term 'Adviser'. He replied
-
officials
"Advisers are used in China so that new younger can be brought into the highest post while the older officials remain as Advisers to the younger officials. These 'Advisers' have no executive powers but considerable
exercise influence. They keep the same conditions as they had when they had executive power,
pay and don't need to keep strict office hours.
but The Adviser and his replacement work well side by side. This system works in China".
well
1997
should
He
During the dinner the question of pensionable service after was raised and LU Ping stated that 'Pensionable Service1 continue through 1997 up to the individual's retirement age. felt that the full details of this could be discussed in the JLG. One interesting point of bi-play occured between LU Ping and the very good girl interpreter.
during the during the dinner
ACFIU officials
One of the was describing various 'allowances' workers
given to such as the bicycle allowance in Beijing and hairdressing allowance
the for 'workers'. This seems incensed the lady who felt she ought to have the allowance as she to have
was very much a 'worker'. She was told by the ACFTU man 'no you are a bureaucrat'! LU Ping seemed quited amused by all and all was discussed in Mandarin without translation. told the gist of it later).
We
this
(We were
we
the
an
After the dinner which surprisingly included ice-cream returned to our bus.
were told that the dinner for Thursday night had been changed to a lunch. Did this mean we now had chance to host a dinner? No we would like you to come to
We said we would very much like dinner at the
if
acrobatic and singing show (!!). to come but had a tentative appointment to have British Embassy. That was fine. I did however, still wonder we should have pressed to give a dinner, but Prime Minister was at a dinner
as the Canadian in the Great Hall of the People the reason for the change of plans became clear.
At the hotel the Beijing correspondents of Wen
Wei Po and Sing
5