TNAG-2714-FCO40-3920-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1993 — Page 43

14-JUL-1993 16:32

JAMES LEE

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TRANSCRIPT B MR. ALASTAIR GOODLAD · FOREIGN AFFAIRS SELECT

14 JULY 1993

COMMITTEE

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MR. MICHAEL JOPLING:

he could tell us

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I wonder if I could address a question to Sir Robin? I wonder if

and this would be valuable to us, I think, just before we embark on this inquiry whether he feels that the

capacity of our embassy in Peking to find out better what is going on China has improved since the last time we went there because quite frankly, some of us took a pretty jaundiced view of the embassy's competence in understanding what was going on.

I remember when we arrived we had been told it was student unrest and the embassy told us: "Oh, no, nol It often happens this time of year and it usually dies down at the end of May and it will do this year! so we went back to the hotel and we talked to the world's massed journalists who had arrived to see what was going on to be told there were very very important things going on throughout China so we went down that night to Tiannanmen Square and talked to the students ourselves and really rather took a view that rather important things were going on and so we went back to the embassy next day and they said to us: "No, no, no! It will all die down!" and of course, we all know what happened five weeks later and I must say that we did take a view that the embasssy was just not in touch with what was actually going on the streets and among the people. Has that improved? (laughter)