consequences since it would mean that the British authorities had not shouldered their responsibilities fully and had not done those things that they ought to have done.
11. I replied sharply that it seemed to me that Song was saying that I was misleading him about the relationship between the British authorities and the BBC. That was not the case. I had taken note of his remarks and his request. I thought it was a mistaken request. If the Chinese side had these concerns they should contact the BBC. The BBC would retain their independence. Song replied that they had already spoken to the BBC and they would do so again. He repeated that the BBC was a British press organisation which had launched slanders against another country and that the British side should intervene.
12. I said that I profoundly disagreed with the comments Song had made. Song retorted that he disagreed that the British Government had no role to play. I said that it was a matter of historical fact that the British Government did not interfere with the BBC. Song repeated that if the British side did not take any action there would be serious consequences. He again asked me to report his comments to my Government. I said that I would do so but hoped that he had taken careful note of my own comments and would report them too.
It
13.
Half an hour later, James Miles (BBC correspondent here) was summoned to meet lower level Information Department officials. seems that the same points were made to him in similar terms. He simply told the Chinese that he personally had had nothing to do with making either the documentary or Brian Barron's piece which was broadcast on BBC World Service Television (Comment: Barron's piece is not/not an excerpt from the documentary but a separate piece using the same source material). The officials had shown great interest in this disclaimer.
14. Miles is worried that the "serious consequences" will be his expulsion. He has already been refused permission to visit Mao's birthplace in Hunan. The refusal came at the last minute after arrangements had been in place for some time but just after the Chinese Embassy's approaches to the FCO and to the BBC in London, so there is a clear link. There are rumours among the foreign journalists here that the BBC bureau is going to be shut down but (as yet) no hard evidence. We have also heard that the Chinese might "pull the plug" on the BBC World Service Television channel in those places where they control the distribution of satellite TV. In practice, this would be the diplomatic compounds, joint venture hotels and work unit satellite dishes. They would have no control over what private satellite dishes received (one of the reasons for the recent crack-down on ownership of satellite dishes).
COMMENT
15. Song's general demeanour was arrogant and condescending. Toward the end of the call my insistence on the independence of the BBC and the impossibility of HMG interfering in any way, together with my attempts to clarify what exactly he meant by serious consequences to the "British side" clearly got under his skin and he became rather heated. The limited clarification of the threat that he eventually gave (cf final sentence of para 10) seemed to be
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