CONFIDENTIAL
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China
He
The Prime Minister raised this topic and spoke about our recent problems wiht the Chinese over the Airport Agreement. described the mood of the Chinese leadership as suspicious and introverted. We had an interest in trying to bring the Chinese on side and to engage them on the issue of arms transfers.
Prime Minister Kaifu spoke at length on similar lines to those he had used at his meeting with the Prime Minister on Sunday. The only different points seemed to be:
(i)
at his recent meeting with the Chinese Foreign Minister the latter had been reasonably forthcoming on arms control in general, but less clear on conventional weapons which he saw as raising a number of difficulties and cutting across the principle of self defence. He had not, however, ruled out the idea of an arms register.
(ii) Mr. Kaifu had made clear that the West had not
forgotten Tiananmen Square, and had urged greater openness on the part of the Chinese.
Signor Andreotti said that the Chinese had been very helpful over Iraq by contrast with their attitide during the Iran/Iraq War. The Chinese were rather disappointed that three out of five members of the Security Council were still conducting an embargo against them.
The
President Gorbachev spoke rather seriously about China. It was wrong to try to isolate her or to play the China card. normal yardsticks could not be applied. You had to see things through their eyes, and that gave a very different perspective. When Jimmy Carter had attacked China's human rights violations, they had replied that the West was very lucky that China fed and clothed one billion people. China could send 400 million refugees to the USA and still have a population of eight hundred million. Jimmy Carter had taken the point, and changed his line thereafter. President Gorbachev emphasised the importance of the renewal of MFN status for China. He agreed with Signor Andreotti that China had been helpful over the Gulf.
President Bush said that the mood in Congress was very anti-Chinese, and he had a battle on his hands. The vote would be a very close one. Congress was trying to put conditions on the renewal of MFN status which the Chinese would see as humiliating. He hoped his colleagues would chip in with Congressmen and Senators. The Prime Minister, Mr. Mulroney and Chancellor Kohl all agreed with this idea. President Bush said there was still a strong feeling in the United States about Tiananmen Square, though he thought he would win the argument with Congress in the end.
Prime Minister Mulroney was very supportive, and spoke warmly about Hong Kong. The advice he was getting from Hong Kong businessmen was not to lean on the Chinese too hard.
The Prime Minister agreed that MFN status was very relevant to Hong Kong. He thought that a 'phone call would be enough to
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