Canberra, 9 September 1971
Secret
Ministerial Visit to China
1. I think a Ministerial visit has more arguments running in favour of it than against it.
2. It would be desirable if you could first see Kibel and find out:
(a) Who is the China Resources Co. he spoke to?
(b) What were the surrounding circumstances? (See para 4 of telegram) 1
(c) What reason does he have for believing the message is genuine?
(d) How does he reconcile this with messages from more highly placed Chinese officials that trade and other contacts must await a break with Taiwan?
(e) To whom would the Minister write?
(f) What business men had been suggested for the trade delegation?
(g) Could the two parties go together?
(h) Could the trade delegation go if the Minister did not?
(i) Why are Kibel’s contacts unhappy about the dialogue in Paris?
3. If the answers to these questions are satisfactory then we should give Mr Kibel his letter. But
(a) Who signs it? Does the Minister or perhaps his Secretary?
(b) Who should go with him? Kibel says we may send a Foreign Affairs officer. I propose a 1st Secretary who has passed the Senior British examination—not to be his interpreter but because of the important advantage of having someone who can check on what people are saying.
(c) What reasons does the Minister give? Surely not a holiday. To see the PLA? These would need to be worked out carefully.
4. Timing. This will be difficult. The Minister will need intensive briefing but this could be done in three or four days. We want to avoid having him in China during the U.N. vote which will probably be about mid–October. My own preference would be earlier rather than later.2 After the vote in the General Assembly, we may have burned our boats. Prior to it, the Chinese may see us as one of the key nations.
5. I see the visit mainly as presentational. I doubt whether it will affect either diplomatic or trading relations. They might however, see it as an opportunity to buy wheat or announce their willingness to do so.
[NAA: A1838, 3107/38/18/2/1, i]
1 Document 253.
2 Underlining this sentence, Bowen wrote ‘query Army Minister visiting China, while we have troops still fighting in Viet–Nam’.