CONFIDENTIAL
A
CY ON SALE OF DEFENCE RELATED EQUIPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY TO TAIWAN
DRAFT GUIDELINES
I
General Position
We recognise the Chinese People's Government as the sole legal
Government of China and have stated in public that the Taiwan
question is China's internal affair to be settled by the Chinese people themselves. China's aim is the eventual
reunification of Taiwan with the mainland.
Arm 3 sales Taiwan by third parties are regarded by Peking as an unfriendly act contributing to the continuation of Taiwan's separation from the PRC and therefore as interference in China's internal
affairs.
to
*
We cannot ignore this firm Chinese position nor Our Own
position agreed with China in 1972. We must proceed with
circumspection if we are to permit any military or
para-military equipment sales to Taiwan. Nevertheless, in
in view
of other countries' readiness to contemplate some relaxation in this area, we can very slightly amend our existing guidelines to accommodate the possibility of using a third country route
in certain carefully defined circumstances.
Our position must at the s ame time be consistent with our
international obligations recently entered into on increased
transparency of arms sales and on reducing proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction and of arms sales into areas of
The Taiwan Strait remains an area of tension, if
at present. We must in particular take care U
account of the PS guidelines agreed in October
1991 which inter
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