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Mr Cheng was confident that China's MFN status would be
renewed this year, but that conditions would be attached.
was important that this should be through executive order rather
than legislation. He was however concerned that if there were
any serious incidents in Tibet, Congress would move swiftly to
revoke MFN. Mr Goodlad said that the Dalai Lama was now talking
about autonomy rather than independence, and that this could lead to some loss of support among his own people.
Mr Cheng said that apart from the Jardine case he was not
aware of any attempt by the Chinese authorities to undermine
British business interests in China.
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