Canberra, 22 July 1971
884. Secret Immediate
China Dialogue No. 011
Thank you for your telegram 9091 and for the skill with which it has proved possible for you to re–open a dialogue which the rigidity of Huang Chen in Paris had seemed virtually to have suspended.
2. We appreciate that Tseng Tao is unlikely to have received reaction from Peking before Polish reception tonight 22 July. Supplementary briefing in following paragraphs is therefore for your use tonight if further opportunity offers, or later, bearing in mind the Government’s wish to move forward steadily on the course of a dialogue leading to progressive normalization as outlined by the Prime Minister to the Citizens Club dinner on 13 May.
3. Should the Chinese be ready to receive a trade delegation, it could take any one of a number of forms, varying in the degree official content. Our preference would be for a group including officials drawn from the Departments of Foreign Affairs and/or Trade and Industry in Canberra or the Trade Commission in Hong Kong. The commercial representation could be:
(a) Private businessmen from individual firms previously involved in trade with China and represented at the Canton Trade Fair;
(b) Members of unofficial bodies like the Associated Chambers of Commerce and of Manufactures and the Metal Trades Export Group;
(c) The Chairman of the Australian Commodity Boards which, while statutory in their formation, are commercial in operation, grower–controlled and not under Government direction; or
(d) The President and/or members of the Export Development Council and the Manufacturing Industries Advisory Council, which are not Government bodies in a formal sense but are established under Government auspices.
4. As we see it, the strictly technical context of the proposal (and of our willingness to envisage reciprocal Chinese visits to Australia) is that Australia’s trade with China could be considerably expanded in terms of both sales and purchases. The first requirement is for each side to acquire better information about the other’s markets. Any of the foregoing forms of delegation could make a practical contribution to assembling the information to promote two–way trade.
5. As the Prime Minister has said publicly, we also believe cultural and scientific exchanges can contribute to the process of normalization. We would, for instance, be prepared to include in the delegation referred to above representation from Australian cultural bodies (one possibility in our minds is a representative of the Elizabethan Theatre Trust).
6. As to scientific contacts, several possibilities have emerged from discussions with the Australian Academy of Science, CSIRO and the Department of Education and Science. We should like to stimulate an invitation to the Australian Academy from the Academia Sinica for a number of Australian scientists to visit China to study developments in various fields. We are aware that the Chinese will not attend conferences to which scientists from Taiwan have been invited. We remain interested, however, in the possibility of representation from the Academia Sinica at conferences in Australia, and are obtaining a list of future meetings in which the interest might be reciprocated. We would also have no objection at all to academic exchanges in both directions, and would not wish to discourage the rather vague but definite approaches some ANU people have had from China in this sense.
7. One other thought you might have the opportunity to float is that, if the Chinese were receptive, we would welcome the prospect of a visit to China by a Parliamentary delegation, on which all parties would be represented. In accordance with our usual practice in these matters. We would have in mind that such a delegation would be headed by a junior Minister.
[NAA: A1838, 3107/38118/2]
1 20 July. Fernandez reported, following instructions from Canberra (see footnote 1, Document 218), that he had had further contact with Tseng Tao, the PRC Ambassador. The latter responded positively to mention of the normalisation of relations and, in reply to a query by Fernandez, said he would communicate with his Government on the possibility of the visit of a trade delegation to Peking.