TNAG-2714-FCO40-3920-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1993 — Page 52

14-JUL-1993 16:36

JAMES LEE

0494536249 P.20

FOREIGN AFFAIRS SELECT

TRANSCRIPT B

COMMITTEE

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MR. ALASTAIR GOODLAD

14 JULY 1993

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CHAIRMAN:

Could we just finally turn to trade issues.

the military aspect of trade. Mr. Jopling.

Could we begin with

MR. MICHAEL JOPLING:

It was, I suppose, four years ago that the European Community

imposed a ban on high-level military contacts with China. I

wonder if you could tell us what is the down-side of that with

regard to our knowledge of what is going on in China from a

military point of view and whether you, Minister, see any

likelihood of that ban being lifted and what is the view of our

colleagues in the European Community with regard to bringing it to

an end?

MR. ALASTAIR GOODLAD:

You have pointed, Mr. Jopling, unerringly to one of the

down-sides of the decision by the Community to suspend arms sales

and high-level military contacts following the events of June

1989; one of them, of course, is that we don't sell arms to China

but others do; the other is that we don't have the interchange

between military personnel which gives one the knowledge of what

they are doing in equipment and deployment and everything else so

there is a down-side to the ban.

There is therefore an interest in the longer term in developing

defence relations with China but that must be dependent on a

significant improvement in China's performance on a range of