160. Telegram 3725/SECTO 65 From the United States Mission to the United Nations to the Department of State, New York, October 6, 1972, 2222Z1 2
TO:
- SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3835
SUBJECT:
- SECRETARY’S DINNER FOR PRC VFM Ch’iao OCTOBER
CONTROL: 2012Q
RECD: 6 OCT ‘72
8:54P
O 062222Z OCT 72 ZFF4
FM: USMISSION USUN NY
BT
USUN 3725
SECTO 65
1. THE SECRETARY GAVE SMALL INFORMAL DINNER FOR VICE FOREIGN MINISTER Ch’iao Kuan-hua AT HIS NEW YORK APARTMENT EVENING OCTOBER 5. AMBASSADOR BUSH AND AMBASSADOR Huang HUA PARTICIPATED. INTERPRETER SHEN JO-YUN AND EA/ACA DIRECTOR Jenkins ALSO PRESENT. OCCASION WAS PRIMARILY SOCIAL, WAS RELAXED AND EXTREMELY CONVIVIAL. SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES DISCUSSED ONLY IN GENERAL TERMS, PUNCTUATED BY HUMOROUS ASIDES OFTEN RELATED TO ALLEGED GEOGRAPHICAL ALLEGIANCES AND QUOTE PROVINCIALISMS UNQUOTE OF THOSE PRESENT. THE SECRETARY EXPRESSED THE HOPE THAT THE VICE INISTER WOULD TRAVEL TO OTHER PARTS OF THE UNITED STATES, INASMUCH AS NEW YORK WAS NOT CONSIDERED TO BE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE NATION. Ch’iao SAID HE LOOKED FORWARD TO DOING THIS AS SOON AS THE SITUATION MADE IT APPROPRIATE. Ch’iao WAS ASSURED THAT THERE WOULD BE NO PROBLEM IN HIS TRAVELS SO FAR AS THE UNITED STATES SIDE WAS CONCERNED.
2. IN RESPONSE TO A QUESTION FROM AMBASSADOR BUSH, Ch’iao SAID THE CHINESE THEMSELVES DID NOT KNOW WHAT THE POPULATION OF CHINA WAS TODAY BUT THE FIGURE 800 MILLION HAD OFTEN BEEN USED. HE SAID THEY WERE MAKING EARNEST ATTEMPTS AT POPULATION CONTROL. SOME PROGRESS HAD BEEN MADE IN THE LARGE CITIES BUT MOST OF THE POPULATION LIVED IN THE COUNTRYSIDE AND BETTER HYGIENE AND VASTLY INCREASED MEDICAL FACILITIES HAD EXACERBATED THE PROBLEM BY SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCING THE MORTALITY RATE.
[Page 2]3. BOTH SIDES EXPRESSED PLEASURE THAT PROVISIONS OF THE SHANGHAI COMMUNIQUE WERE BEING IMPLEMENTED IN A HIGHLY SATISFACTORY MANNER AND AT AN APPROPRIATE RATE OF PROGRESS. THE SECRETARY NOTED THAT THE MARKED IMPROVEMENT IN SINO-US RELATIONS HAD MET WITH VIRTUALLY UNIVERSAL APPROVAL IN OUR COUNTRY. Ch’iao READILY AGREED THAT THIS WAS THE CASE. AMBASSADOR BUSH EXPRESSED APPRECIATION FOR THE MANNER IN WHICH THE CHINESE. AND THE US UN MISSIONS HAD WORKED TOGETHER WITH SERIOUSNESS OF PURPOSE. HE SAID THAT WE NATURALLY HAD OUR DIFFERENCES WHICH WE FREELY EXPRESSED, BUT THAT WE WERE BUILDING VERY SATISFACTORILY ON THE COMMON GROUND WHICH WE HAD FOUND.
4. THE SECRETARY OBSERVED THAT THE RECENT VISIT OF PRIME MINISTER Tanaka TO PEKING SEEMED TO HAVE GONE VERY WELL. HE THOUGHT THERE WAS GENERAL SATISFACTION IN OUR COUNTRY THAT THIS WAS SO. THE VICE MINISTER SAID THAT CHINA AND JAPAN HAD A LONG HISTORY OF ASSOCIATION AND THAT MUCH COMMON GROUND WAS FOUND IN THE RECENT SUMMIT MEETING. NATURALLY, THERE WERE DIFFERENCES BUT REAL PROGRESS HAD BEEN MADE.
5. THE SECRETARY IN CONGRATULATING THE VICE MINISTER ON HIS LINGUISTIC PROWESS REMINDED HIM THAT IN PEKING WE HAD AGREED THAT EACH SIDE COULD PROFIT FROM HELP FROM THE OTHER. IN LANGUAGE STUDY, WITH PARTICULAR EMPHASIS UPON CONTEMPORARY USAGE. Ch’iao WAS TOLD THAT WE WERE COLLECTING MATERIALS WHICH WE HOPED THE CHINESE WOULD FIND USEFUL IN THIS FIELD.
6. AMBASSADOR BUSH ASKED HOW THE CHINESE VIEWED THE AMERICAN PARTICIPATION IN THE SPRING CANTON TRADE FAIR. FOR OUR PART, WE THOUGHT IT VERY SATISFACTORY. Ch’iao AGREED AND SAID THAT MORE AMERICANS WOULD BE INVITED TO THE FALL TRADE FAIR. BOTH SIDES EXPRESSED SATISFACTION AT THE MANNER IN WHICH TRADE WAS DEVELOPING AND LOOKED FORWARD TO FURTHER PROGRESS.
[Page 3]7. THE SECRETARY MENTIONED SEVERAL POINTS OF SIMILARITY BETWEEN OUR TWO COUNTRIES AND PEOPLES. THE VICE MINISTER SAID THAT HE FOUND OUR HABIT OF QUOTE KIDDING OURSELVES UNQUOTE ESPECIALLY ATTRACTIVE, AND EVIDENCE OF SOCIAL HEALTH. HE CONGRATULATED THE U.S. SIDE FOR HAVING INTRODUCED INTO THE SHANGHAI COMMUNIQUE THE CONCEPT THAT NO NATION IS INFALLIBLE. HE THOUGH THAT BOTH CHINA AND AMERICA WERE CONSTANTLY TRYING TO BRING ABOUT IMPROVEMENT IN MANY FIELDS. THIS PREVENTED COMPLACENCY WHICH WOULD START ANY NATION ON A DOWNWARD PATH.
8. AMBASSADOR BUSH EXPRESSED APPRECIATION FOR SIMILARITIES IN CHINESE AND AMERICAN OBJECTIVES WITH RESPECT TO THE PROBLEM OF TERRORISM, ALTHOUGH WE HAD A FEW DIFFERENCES PERHAPS IN OUR METHODOLOGY. Ch’iao DID NOT PURSUE THE SUBJECT.
9. Ch’iao, INTRODUCING THE ONLY SUBJECT SPECIFICALLY RAISED BY THE CHINESE, ASKED THE SECRETARY TO GIVE QUOTE NON-POLITICAL UNQUOTE OPINIONS OF CONCORDE AIRCRAFT. THE SECRETARY SAID WE HAD NO REASON TO CRITICIZE IT. ITS CONFIGURATION WAS PLEASING .AND WE BELIEVED ITS TECHNOLOGY WAS SOUND, BUT WE HAD SOME DOUBTS AS TO ITS COST EFFECTIVENESS SINCE IT IS VERY EXPENSIVE. IT MIGHT BE FEASIBLE FOR LONG HAULS. WE THOUGHT THE SONIC BOOM PROBLEM WAS MANAGEABLE AND WE HAD PLANS OF OUR OWN TO JOIN IN THE SECOND GENERATION OF SUPERSONIC AIRCRAFT.
10. NEITHER VIETNAM NOR TAIWAN WAS MENTIONED.
11. TENOR OF ENTIRE EVENING WAS QUOTE SO FAR SO GOOD UNQUOTE IN SINO-US RELATIONS. DIFFERENCES WERE BEING FACED FORTHRIGHTLY BUT, FOR THE MOST PART, WERE BEING SET ASIDE IN FAVOR OF CONCENTRATING ON CONSTRUCTIVE POTENTIAL IN ENLARGING COMMON GROUND. IT WAS AGREED THAT SUCH CANDOR WAS BEST FOUNDATION FOR FURTHER IMPROVEMENT IN RELATIONS, WHICH BOTH SIDES CONFIDENTLY EXPECTED.
[Page 4]12. BOTH SIDES HAD AGREED THAT THERE WOULD BE NO COMMENT TO THE MEDIA PRIOR TO THE DINNER. THERE WAS, HOWEVER, A LEAK (OUR INFORMATION ATTRIBUTE IT TO THE CHINESE SIDE) AND THERE WAS A SMALL REPRESENTATION FROM THE PRESS ON ARRIVAL OF THE CHINESE PARTY AND SOME DOZEN WERE PRESENT ON DEPARTURE. THIS DID NOT SEEM TO DISTURB THE CHINESE AND MAY WELL HAVE ACCORDED WITH THEIR UNEXPRESSED WISHES.
13. DEPARTMENT MAY WISH TO DOWNGRADE AND GIVE BROADER DISTRIBUTION.
GDS.
ROGERS
BT
#3725
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970-73, POL CHICOM-US. Secret; Immediate; Nodis; Homer. The meeting was held at Ch’iao’s apartment in New York on October 5.↩
- Secretary of State Rogers, Ambassador to the United Nations Bush, and Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Minister Ch’iao Kuan-hua discussed the continued thawing of relations between the United States and China.↩