PERSONAL
The Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Howe QC MP
House of Commons
LONDON SW1A OAA
March 1991
I promised to get back to you on the question of your invitation to visit Taiwan. Having consulted Ministers and others here who know the Chinese scene, I want to repeat the view that it would be a sad waste of your links with China if you went to Taiwan at this point. You are held in much affection in Peking and the possibility that you could pay a visit there in circumstances which would help advance our bilateral dealings with China and our mutual understanding over Hong Kong is not one which we would wish lightly to discard. I fear that if you did go to Taiwan the Taiwanese would crow and the Chinese in Peking would feel consequently much offended.
We do not have at the moment a clear sense of whether or when a visit by you to China might work to our advantage. As you know, the Secretary of State will be visiting Hong Kong and Peking in the first week of April. We must first see how that visit turns out.
A20ABE
RA Burns