TNAG-1258-FCO40-1591-Third-countries-and-the-future-of-Hong-Kong-1984 — Page 96

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4. During the Sino/Swedish talks the Chinese reported on the present state of their relations with the United States and the Soviet Union. China wanted normal relations with the United States but considered that this was impossible so long as the United States lacked confidence in China - ie by maintaining an embargo on the export of high technology to China. In the case of the Soviet Union, the Chinese made it clear to the Swedes that they wanted normal relations between the two States but not between the two Parties. To this end the Chinese were prepared to see expansion in exchanges of students, tourism,exchanges of scientific infor- mation and trade. Relations between the two Parties would only become normal if the Soviet Union fulfilled four conditions:

5.

(a)

(b)

(c)

withdrew from Afghanistan;

caused the Vietnamese to withdraw from Cambodia (the Chinese see the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia as an extension of Soviet influence in South-East Asia but considered that there was no other chance but eventually to withdraw because of lack of resources); reduced its troops all along the Soviet/Chinese border and

(d) reduced its troops in Mongolia.

Other subjects covered during the talks concerned disarmament generally with the Chinese giving the Swedes the benefit of their thoughts on INF and the Swedes reporting on submarine incidents off the Swedish coast and nuclear-weapon free zones in Europe including the Central Europe "Corridor". The Chinese wished the Swedes success in their efforts to keep the two Superpowers talking disarmament, which was the role of small countries, but neverthe- less displayed great scepticism towards the likely behaviour of the Soviet Union. Klackenberg said these discussions were some- what academic in nature but the one point which the Chinese stressed in the INF context was that if the United States persuaded the Soviet Union to remove some or all of its SS20's from Eastern Europe, China did not want to find them subsequently pointing at her from Soviet Central Asia.

6. The Chinese did not miss the opportunity to say something about Hong Kong (and Taiwan). I have reported this to you already in Stockholm telno 282 but copy addresses might like to know that the Chinese appeared to be very confident on both territories. Time was on their side - "oceans of time" was the expression used - and they made the point when the Hong Kong question was settled, they would not change the social system and this would serve as an example of the way they would handle the question of Taiwan. The Swedes and my French colleague observed that Chinese priorities seem to have been reversed.

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