CONFIDENTIAL
ANNEX C : CHINA
1.
My time in China was divided between a spell in Peking and a visit to Shanghai. I saw members of the MFA and of the Ministry of Foreign Trade in Peking as well as visiting a school and a factory. In Shanghai I visited the machine tool factory and, a
commune.
2.
Points arising from discussions with Chinese officials
EL
The Chinese in the Western European Affairs Department of the MFA were very keen to arrange for more cultural exchanges. The French had an exhibition of paintings in Peking at the time of my visit and the Chinese thought that an exhibition of British oil paintings would be very popular. They thought a Turner exhibition would go down particularly well. They also told us that memories lingered in Peking of a performance of Swan Lake given by the Bolshoi; clearly this would not be repeated, and it would be marvellous if the Royal Ballet were able to go to Peking. We suggested that both these ideas would be extremely expensive and could hardly expect to generate the sort of money from visitors as major exhibitions in London did. We suggested that the Ballet Rambert would be good value and might be less expensive to arrange and we surmised that a more modest display of British painting might make a successful beginning.
The Chinese seemed pleased at the prospect of inward ministerial visits. Both Ministries were keen to impress
on me the significance of the Ku Ming visit and the extent to which the Chinese were trying to include "end users" in a comprehensive mission that would take in all the decision makers from planners to those who would actually have to operate the plant. The MFA people admitted rather shame-facedly that they had built up an enormous "debt" towards people who now expected reciprocal visits from the Chinese Foreign Minister. They were trying to work out appropriate itineraries for him but it was proving difficult. | They did not seem very optimistic about an early visit by Huang Hua to the UK.
с In the Ministry of Foreign Trade, the Chinese appeared to be telling us that Chinese figures showed a Chinese deficit in bilateral trade with the UK for 1977. (Mr Paul will be trying to discover what the meant). They suggested therefore that the UK should buy more from China and stressed the role of the projected British buying missions. We countered with the thought that credit might be one answer. (There was a Rothschild in Peking at the time!). The Chinese replied that they thought that the sort of arrangements worked out in connection with the supply of coal for the Hong Kong power station could be a model and should be carefully studied. (In Hong Kong, the British Trade Commissioner underlined the fears which a number of people expressed to me that a political element might enter into these or subsequent arrangements which could face people in London and
/Hong Kong
CONFIDENTIAL
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.