TNAG-2353-FCO40-3423-Visits-by-Lord-Caithness--Minister-of-State-for-Foreign-and--1991 — Page 28

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been possible, particularly in my talks with Tien Zengpei (which lasted a total of four and a half hours) and Qian Qichen to discuss issues other than Hong Kong in some depth. Indeed, I did talk to them about our bilateral relations

(including human rights), the importance we attach to progress on conventional arms control and nuclear non-proliferation, and China's ability to influence developments in such regional problems as Cambodia and Burma. But I failed to establish the sort of genuine dialogue and exchange of world and regional views that I have found in my travels to other countries in the Far East and South East Asia. Hong Kong is not the only reason for this of course. It is also partly due no doubt to inherent Chinese suspicions of the liberal western democracies and to their deep-seated sinocentric view of the world (on which more below). But it was quite clear that all my interlocutors (Zou Jiahua excepted) were preoccupied with developments in Hong Kong and looked at our bilateral relations through that distorting prism. While I therefore have much sympathy for Alan Donald's pleas over the years for a more fully rounded "China policy" and believe that we should continue to try and engage China, as a permanent member of the Security Council, on key international and strategic issues, I think that we should have no illusions as to the critical impact that developments in Hong Kong will continue to have over the next five and half years on our bilateral relationship.

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