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regional affairs. The French had the impression that the Australians had been reflecting carefully over recent months and that their attitudes were becoming more reasonable.
Giraud would see Hawke and the Australian Defence Minister but Hayden would be abroad at the time. The Australians now also seemed to be under less of a misunderstanding about France's intentions in Fiji. (I told Martin it would be good if the French could from time to time volunteer a briefing to us on the same subject, since the extent of their activities was not always clear in London.) Martin said that latest developments in Vanuatu were also relatively positive and there were signs that opinion no longer polarized in a straight Anglophone versus Francophone way.
HONG KONG
5.
I asked Martin not to lose sight of our continuing problem over Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong. He referred to their recent gesture during Bariani's visit but held out no further hope for the future.
TAIWAN
6.
I suggested that we should coordinate closely to prevent wedge-driving and outbidding by the Taiwanese. Martin said the French would be very much in favour of a fully coordinated discussion of this in the POCO working group and had said as much to the Germans. The Quai was under heavy pressure from the private sector in France, who claimed that they were in the pockets of Peking, whereas all the money and therefore all the business was in Taiwan. Froment-Meurice, a former Director for Asia and now with Paribas, had telephoned Martin recently to complain on this score and to mention that he would be going to the funeral in Taiwan of Chiang Ching-Kuo. Martin had replied that he was only implementing the policy which Froment-Meurice himself had devised years ago! The President of the French Senate had laid on a lavish dinner for the recent visiting Taiwanese Vice Prime Minister. The Chinese Embassy had complained loudly about this, saying the French were the only country in Europe to do this. Martin said the French were considering whether they should set up a French Institute in Taiwan analogous to that which the Americans had.
CHINA
7.
I asked whether human rights in Tibet had been raised during Li Xiannian's visit. Martin said no, the reason being that there was no pressure from public opinion in France on the question. Chou Nan had told Pérol during talks at the time of that visit that the
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