TNAG-0743-FCO40-947-Relations-between-China-and-Hong-Kong-1978 — Page 236

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recognise that, as Chairman Mao said, the newly established

People's Republic of China had stood up.

The

intervening years were not always easy, but in March

1972 we entered a [vitally] new dimension when our

Governments agreed to exchange Ambassadors.

Since then

we have seen an ever increasing process of contact and

interchange, of which the past year has been the most

remarkable, with an unprecedented number of high level

visits between us in both directions and of growing

exchanges of all kinds. You are yourself the fourth

Minister to come to Britain in the past 12 months, and

there have been three Vice-Ministers as well. From

our side three Cabinet Ministers have been to China and

there have been several visits by groups led by

distinguished Parliamentarians as well as leading

industrialists.

And it is not only at this level, at the

all important grass roots level there have been more

academic exchanges than ever before and more Britons have

gone as tourists to your country than ever before.

'It is also a year during which the Chinese

Government, under Premier Hua Kuo-feng's leadership, has

embarked on a policy which all of us recognise as

immensely important to China: a programme designed to

transform China's economy by means of rapid modernisation

affecting all aspects of your national life. It is

a grandiose undertaking, and it has our sympathy and

admiration.