Trade with China

Throughout Britain last week there was a heady feeling of optimism over the prospect of doing more business with Red China. Back from trade talks with the Chinese Communists at Geneva, top-drawer representatives of British industry burbled about "new possibilities of contact" which had been opened up for Anglo-Chinese trade. The representatives came from such austere bodies as the Federation of British Industries (Britain's N.A.M.), the Association of British Chambers of Commerce and the National Union of Manufacturers. This week the Chinese announced that they will exchange trade missions with Britain.

Exultant left-wingers outdid themselves in singing praises of China's new bosses. The Rt. Hon. J. Harold Wilson, M.P. and former Socialist president of the Board of Trade, had a pleasant chat at Geneva with Chinese Premier Chou Enlai, reported back: "As we said goodbye, and he stood waving at the door of his villa . . . I felt we had been meeting one of the world's leading statesmen . . . who knows what he wants for his country. A man. in fact, we can deal with."

But Britons who thought they could do business with Chou were guilty of short sight and shorter memories. Nine years ago there were about 600 Western businesses in China, with total investments of around $1.3 billion. These have since dwindled to a handful of firms which are trying in vain to give up their holdings and get out. Two years ago Britain decided to liquidate more than $840 million of assets in China. And in Britain itself there is a growing group of ex-China hands whose companies and personal possessions had been seized. Unable to pay huge fines levied by the Reds, many had been jailed for months.

Nonetheless, there were plenty of Britons with Red stars in their eyes who were ready to gobble the bait the Reds were offering. The bait: exit permits for twelve British businessmen who have been trying to get out for three years; permission for five British banks and firms to replace their managers in China. The Communists made no mention of some 350 other British nationals still waiting for exit visas. Nevertheless, British businessmen seemed ready to overlook such trifles.

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