relationships, guanxi, which means that before one embarks on any endeavour, before one makes a contract in business, before one does any dealing in any field, cultural, business or political, you establish this good working relationship. It has been extremely difficult since Tiananmen when the European Community felt it was not a good thing to meet at high level with Chinese leaders and for a time it was self-defeating because,
in a society that believes in these good relationships, impossible to build those relationships at the very top.
it was
There will be an impact if we have a row over Hong Kong on this feature, but you will have noticed that Chancellor Helmut Kohl went to China recently and came back with something like $2 billions of orders and a contract for the underground and the metro. Part of that was because he had given the Chinese government face, and that is a factor which will affect everything. But for the rest, the Chinese will be immensely in need of exchange, of transfer of technology,
transfer of technology, of capital for investment of markets for their goods, and the Government can do a great deal in encouragement at the right time for China to become a member of Gatt, and introduce them to all the procedures that we in the west are used to. It would be very helpful. The Chinese would, of course, recognise that, if we gave them help, that was something that would require some return. have an advantage there.
We might
They require money. Perhaps this is the wrong time of the year and the wrong time of the economic cycle to be hoping for more soft loans and ECGD cover, but those are immensely important to encourage British firms to venture out into very long term relationships in the Asia Pacific region. So one would hope for Government support, Government information to help companies set up and do business in that part of the world, but also the exchange of technology and the exchange of skills such as management skills. If you look at China today there are 240 million people classified as illiterate, and there are only 2 million people who attend at any time a proper university. So there is a great shortage of educated and skilled labour, and a great deal of lacunae in management skills. If you ask anyone
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