CONFIDENTIAL
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Consular agreement. FED had reservations about this latter as the Chinese had made clear that British officials would not have rights of access to any Hong Kong Chinese detained by the authorities in the People's Republic. this was acapted by both sides the FCO would not want it spelt out.
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While
However a Consular agreement was not a necessary preface to opening consulates and FED was convinced that there was a good case for at least one in China. Because of the lack of funds they would propose to concentrate initially on Shanghai. Two consulates would not be approved at one time and Shanghai was a higher priority than Canton which was already covered from BTC Hong Kong, though this latter arrangement was by no means ideal. The consulate would be a commercial/political one, not a "consilar" one. To some extent it would undertake local work already done, necessarily rather inefficiently, by the Embassy but would also take on new work identifying contacts, attempting to open up the
market etc.
11 The present financial constraints meant that a new consulate in Shanghai had to be offset by the closure of at least one other in another part of the world and Mr McLaren could not therefore guarantee that the proposal would be accepted. If it were, however, an announcement might suitably follow
Lord Carrington's mission to China.
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12 Mr Benjamin and Mr Robinson both spoke in favour of the proposal. Authority was being devolved to the provinces and Jia Shi had noted last year that they were now empowered to spend up to $2-3 million in purchases on their own account. It was therefore important to have a UK commercial representative in China's second city. Companies had ready access to market economy customers through agents etc but this was not possible in China where much commercial representational work necessarily devolved on to the nation's diplomatic reprosentation. Mr Benjamin and Mr Milton both noted however that a final decision on Shanghai would have to be taken in the light of the prospects for closure. There was no point in sacri- ficing one weful commercial office for another.
13 Summing up Mr Dick noted that the China Working Group wished to lend its support to the Ambassador's and FED's proposal and went on to express the hope that the existence of much less commercially valuable consulates should not be allowed to stand in the way of the rapid establishment of UK representation in Shanghai.
FINANCING INWARD MINISTERIAL VISITS
14 Mr Dick recalled that there had been some problems over financing the recent Kang visit and that Department of Trade funds had been called to the rescue
at the last minute. The Department had now written to CSD setting out the criteria for its future involvement in Ministerial missions hated by other Departments and he drew these to the attention of the Working Party. (A copy of the letter from PS/MFT to PS/Mr Channon is attached to this meeting note).
15 Mr McLaren noted that the problems had arisen because the Chinese had insisted on bringing a much larger delegation than that originally planned for. The
Chinese had recently issued guidelines for foreign delegations visiting China and he suggested that it might therefore be opportune for the UK to put its programme of inward missions from China on a more predicable footing. The Chinese had limited inward parties to the following:
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