CONFIDENTIAL
Mr Millington, FED
HKB 020/6
3
PA (11
Secretary of State's Dinner
with the Chinese Ambassador
The Secretary of State dined with the Chinese Ambassador last night. He was grateful for your briefing.
Ji said that Qian Qichen was keen to invite the Secretary of State to visit China. The Secretary of State said that that would be nice but gave no firmer commitment.
Ji raised Taiwan. He explained that China was developing its own commercial and other relations with Taiwan but stressed that there was no change in China's attitude towards official contacts. He enquired with more curiosity than anxiety about our own moves towards Taiwan. The Secretary of State made it clear that nothing that we were doing would compromise our view of the illegitimacy of the Taiwanese regime.
The Secretary of State expressed concern about Tibet. The Ambassador assured him that China was trying to find the right way to deal with it.
The Secretary of State covered all the Basic Law points in Mr Paul's supplementary briefing of 25 January.. the Ambassador and Madame Zhang sounded sympathetic to
Our
concerns.
The Secretary of State explained how FAC inquiries work. Neither Ji nor Zhang seemed to be worried about the inquiry (though they may of course become so in time).
The Secretary of State also spoke as briefed about the problem of Vietnamese boat people and the need for Chinese support and cooperation for what we were trying to do. His impression was that neither Ji nor Zhang really understood the problem. He has suggested that the department might follow this up with the Embassy. One
CONFIDENTIAL
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