CONFIDENTIAL
European Director Mei Zhaorong.
The fora for such discussions
should at times be expanded beyond the FCO and Whitehall. Possibilities include an Anglo-Chinese Round Table based on Chatham House, a more select and private Koenigswinter discussion, or even in due course a gathering at Chevening involving Ministerial teams from both sides. There may also be new areas for cooperation such as shared broadcasting facilities.
13. Ail in all, as the State Visit signified, we have in place the bones of a substantial relationship with an important country of
The political reasons for responding to rapidly growing potential. China's willingness to develop that relationship and maintaining its openness to the West is matched by the commercial advantages of doing so. Inevitably Governments have a major role in helping to put
The work is difficult, time-consuming and flesh on these bones.
often Erustrating. But we have come a long way from the China of the Korean War, the Sino-Soviet bloc, and the Cultural Revolution. China has not yet matched Japan's Meiji Revolution and probably never will. But we help ourselves considerably by helping China to develop and live peacefully.
FAR EASTERN DEPARTMENT
27 MARCH 1987
FC3AAU
CONFIDENTIAL
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