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7. I took up with Hu the "Independent's" wish to re-open its Bureau in Peking and the "Observer's" wish that Mr Mirsky should have a visa to pursue his interest in the Three Gorges Project and in an interview with a leader. Hu commented that Mr Mirsky and the former Independent correspondent, Andrew Higgins, were "very famous" in the Chinese Embassy. They had both caused
problems.
His Press Attache colleague was currently in Peking and would no doubt be discussing such cases with the Information Department. I pressed for Mr Hu to take a particular interest in the two cases. In particular, Miss Poole of the Independent had been waiting in Hong Kong for some months for authorisation to
proceed to Peking. Hu took note, but clearly without enthusiasm.
TAIWAN
8. Hu brought up the matter of Mr Goodlad's remarks to the
Chinese Conservative Association. These had been reported in the European Edition of the SingTao Daily as implying that the UK was
going for a rapid expansion of links with Taiwan. I said that I
had not been present at the meeting. Mr Goodlad's remarks had
been taken out of context. The bulk of his address had been
about Sino-British relations and Hong Kong. Since some of his audience had links with Taiwan he had also explained the limits of our ability to deal formally with Taiwan. The SingTao's
report appeared to be a gross distortion, although I had not
myself read it. Hu then referred to a Chinese New Year Party at
which the Master of Ceremonies had introduced David Liu (who runs
the Taiwan Cultural Centre here) as the "Ambassador of the ROC".
Mr Morris and I treated this with considerable jocularity, which was not shared by Hu. He asked rhetorically how it was possible
to have two Ambassadors of China in the UK. We treated this
remark with the levity it deserved.
11minklchchina
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