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CONFIDENTIAL
Mr Chu Chi-yuan said that some British people of Chinese origin had complained after a visit to China that they were not allowed into a painting exhibition there. Perhaps some departments had the wrong approach.
Mr Cortazzi said that journalists were another group who would welcome freer access to China, both in terms of receiving visas and wider travel within China. Mr Sung said that quite a lot of journalists did visit China. Generally, journalists were welcomed. On travel restrictions, he said that most parts of the country were open to foreigners. For example, Tibet was now open: Lord Shawcross would be going to Tibet on his forthcoming visit. Normally the Chinese authorities granted requests by the British Embassy: for example, Sir Edward Youde had been to Szechuan before it had been generally opened to foreigners. Other places had not yet been opened to foreigners because the proper facilities such as hotels and roads were not available. An example was the East Ching Tombs near Peking. Another example was Cheng Teh, a summer palace of the Ching Dynasty, where Lord McCartney had presented his credentials. Another problem was that the Gang of Four had damaged many places. Mr Sung had already instructed Protocol Department that Mr Davies should be allowed to visit these places before his departure. He did not know whether Protocol Department would listen to him. One problem for Protocol Department was that if one Embassy was allowed to visit a place, all Embassies would want to go. Mr Cortazzi said that our Embassy staff did not require luxury treatment - and would be willing to "rough it" for the sake of learning more about China. It would be to China's advantage to be generous in giving access to Embassy officials and journalists. In London we were relaxed almost to the point of having no restrictions. Mr Chu acknowledged that the UK authorities were friendly towards the Chinese Embassy. In Peking all foreign Embassies were treated alike. Nevertheless, favourable consideration was given to requests from the British Embassy. London, the Chinese were the only people to be restricted and were thus discriminated against. Mr Cortazzi rejected this last point. We applied restrictions against the Embassies of all countries who restricted our diplomats. Our policy was therefore one of reciprocity, not discrimination. If our diplomats were free to travel in a given country there were no restrictions against the Embassy of that country in the UK. We were much stricter towards members of the Soviet Embassy. Mr Cortazzi invited Mr Chu to let him know if the Chinese Embassy met any problems over our travel notifications scheme.
CLAIMS
In
Mr Cortazzi then raised the question of claims. He outlined the four categories into which UK claims against China fell:
(a)
Sequestrated British Government Property
Soon after the revolution the Chinese authorities had taken over most of the 20 or so Consulates which we had maintained throughout China. Settlement of compensation for a number of these properties remained outstanding.
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CONFIDENTIAL
/(b)
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