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OF 090429Z NOVEMBER 93
INFO IMMEDIATE LISBON
INFO PRIORITY OTHER EC POSTS, WASHINGTON, HONG KONG
INFO PRIORITY UKREP JLG HONG KONG, BTC HONG KONG
INFO ROUTINE BRASILIA
VISIT BY PRESIDENT JIANG ZEMIN: POSSIBLE STOPOVER IN LISBON
1.
The Portuguese Embassy here have told us (and other Community Embassies) that the Chinese have approached them about the possibility of President Jiang Zemin spending a night in Lisbon on about 28 November. Jiang is due to attend the APEC Leaders' Meeting in Seattle and may then visit Brazil. The Portuguese have been told that he would arrive in Lisbon at about 2200 and Leave the following day at about 1600. The Chinese have not specified his onward destination; but he has a long-standing invitation to visit Romania and there have also been reports that he will visit Malta at some stage.
2. The Portuguese seem to think that a brief stopover of this kind would not be caught by the EC ban on exchanges at Head of State level. Erosion of that ban is a high priority objective for Chinese diplomacy: no doubt they would be happy to describe any meeting with President Soares as "unofficial". (Soares reportedly said in Macao Last week that he would like to visit China in 1994.)
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