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I fully agree with Alan Donald that the Chinese would be likely to regard changes in Britain's political attitude towards Taiwan, or even perceived political changes such as British Airways setting up airlinks with Taipei, as a further demonstration of the "unfriendly" British attitude towards China post 4 June. A relatively soft target for the Chinese to hit in retaliation could be Hong Kong. We should therefore all take great care not to allow the Chinese to develop any theory of a new, and to them unfavourable, British policy towards Taiwan during the present difficult phase we are going through in our relations.
RJT McLaren Esq CMG AUSS
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Governor
CC
ere
Sir Alan Donald KCMG HMA, Peking