TNAG-0616-FCO40-764-Policy-of-UK-on-status-of-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 20

CONFIDENTIAL

DSR TIC

10.

It is already government policy in all Western

countries to allow and in all countries but one (the

G

US) actively to promote the sale of advanced civil

technology and equipment to the Soviet Union despite

the far greater military and political threat posed to

the West by that country. There are critics of this

policy but it is generally argued in favour of it that

the engagement of the Soviet Union in trade with the

West and the technological dependence, limited though

it is, which flows from it is a far more effective

constraint on Soviet foreign policy and attitudes to

the West than a policy of commercial isolation would be.

The same considerations apply mutatis mutandis to China.

The only doubt which arises, therefore, is how far the

West can or should be more relaxed about the sale of

military equipment or technology (or civil technology

with military implications) to China than to the Soviet

Union. The main reasons against a more relaxed

attitude are that China would in future pose a serious

military threat to her smaller neighbours (and hence

to the United States as the guarantor of Taiwan's

security), and the West should do nothing to advance

that day; and that a stronger China could challenge

Western interests in the Third World.

11. The second argument can be dismissed fairly simply.

It will be very many years before China could have a

/significant

CONFIDENTIAL

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