TNAG-1657-FCO40-2305-Daya-Bay-nuclear-power-station-project-safety-concerns-in-Ho-1987 — Page 42

return to the table.

confuse your enemy. .)

(Sun Tsu: Anger and

Meanwhile, the French sensed that the Chinese

would be ready to sign with Framatome quickly,

and were keen to press financial concessions.

The UK side said that the position should be

held until GEC were at a corresponding stage,

otherwise further concessions would be

needed.

The sequence of negotiations was sporadic

frequent consultations on the Chinese side,

and there was clearly an overall direction

coming from Vice-Premier Li Peng and a small

group of senior Ministers. There was a danger

of stalling again; the financial negotiating.

basket was running dry, and no obvious way

in which we were ever going to get out of

Beijing. We then heard that the PM was due

to be seeing Premier Zhao at the UN. In

contemplating the line of the brief to the

PM, came across Sun Tsu "When confronted

with overwhelming odds, the prudent General

retreats to a position of impregnable defence".

The PM offered just such a defence, and we

had to press the French that this was an

opportunity for us to draw a line across the

financial negotiations, and also express at

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