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13 APR 1993
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1.
IND
Mr Runacres and I had lunch with Jérome Pasquier (Sous Directeur, Far East) and François Richier (desk officer, China) on 18 March. The following points were of particular interest. I have reported the discussion on Korea separately
I Woods by teletter).
Woodray 174
Japan
2.
Pasquier thought that a French centre-right government would not bring any changes to French policy towards Japan. He was keen to protest that the French were not anti-Japanese - despite Dumas' failure to visit Tokyo and Mitterrand's private comments a couple of years ago, the French did regard the Japanese as serious interlocutors. The French have a structured programme of six monthly meetings at S-G level with the Japanese at which the whole range of regional and international subjects are discussed (they also have JDirecteur level meetings on various fields, including, to my knowledge, UN and Middle East Affairs). Real French difficulties lay with the G7's role.
Hong Kong
3.
The French continue to follow Hong Kong closely and we briefed Pasquier and Richier on the current situation. We were able to put them right on UK firmness with the Chinese which they (and many others) had suspected of wavering during the recent delay in gazetting the Governor's proposals.
China/Taiwan
4.
Pasquier and Richier said that Franco/Chinese relations could well take a turn for the better after the French legislatives, as it was striking that many of the Chinese statements had been directed against the Socialist Government by name. Interestingly, they also said that the French Right had close contacts with the Chinese and conversely, the Left, are closer to Taiwan. A Centre-Right government should therefore as a rule be less hawkish over arms sales to Taiwan rather than more. Richier was interested to note that the language used in the Chinese threat, on 18 March against UK economic interests as a consequence of the current problems in Hong Kong was very similar to that which they used with the French over Mirage.
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