who sets up a joint venture what they think about Chinese management, and it is very patchy.
This country is expert; it is a leader in the world in managing things. We are a great practical people. We can surely do much more in the way of trading. We are doing a lot; British companies are bringing back Chinese people here and training them, and we are sending people out and doing courses and there is a great deal of exchange of technology and management skills. But if we concentrate on that, you gain friends for life among young Chinese, who get their knowledge here and their loyalties from the firms they work with here and go back, and ten years later you will get the reward for it.
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Chairman: For the remaining period, and we do not have long, could we turn to the Hong Kong issues which were being discussed in such very lively terms a little earlier by Sir Percy?
Sir John Stanley: Sir Percy gave us a very clear view as to his position, namely that the British Government and the Governor's policy was now down the wrong track; that the unilateral process that we were engaged on was going to be self- destructive; and he called for a reversal of policy based on co- operation on the best terms we could get, from which I understand basically that there would be ultimately no sticking positions as far as the British position was concerned, and at the end of the day the Chinese would get the negotiation on their own terms. Could both of you tell the Committee whether or not you favour if I may call it this - the Cradock alternative policy? And could you each tell us that if you do not, in which specific respects you differ with Sir Percy Cradock's analysis and where you would find it, presumably, defective?
Sir Richard Evans: I retired in April 1984, so I am far beyond my 'best by' date. All my experience when I was Ambassador and chief negotiator in China was that unless one knew the whole picture and knew it intimately from day-to-day dealings with it, judgment was extremely hazardous. So I would prefer not to make any precise judgment, except one. That is that I
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