Page:Kissinger's Trip (2) - November 25-29, 1974(Gerald Ford Library)(1553935).pdf/19

 MEMORANDUM

THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

Secretary Kissinger asked that I pass you the following report:

"After a brief visit to the Forbidden City, we launched the substantive discussions with the Chinese Tuesday morning. During the day, we had almost four hours of talks with Vice Premier Teng Hsiao-Ping and Foreign Minister Chiao Kuan-Hua, covering international issues in the morning and normalization of bilateral relations in the afternoon. At the Chinese invitation, I did most of the talking; we will hear their views tomorrow. The basic impressions today were their continued preoccupation with the Soviet Union, and the possibility that we will not make major progress on the normalization question this trip. However, the Chinese stress that the two issues are separate and we have after all no reason to be over-anxious.

"We opened with a plenary session during which we agreed that I would discuss international issues and normalization with Teng and Chiao while counter-part talks would cover bilateral issues such as exchanges and trade. The Chinese noted Tanaka's resignation and said they preferred Ohira as his successor since they consider Fukuda pro-Soviet. At the outset Teng said that US-China relations were essentially on course; they would like to make progress toward diplomatic relations along the Japanese model but are prepared to wait if we cannot be as forthcoming on Taiwan as they like. Continually invoking Chairman Mao, Teng said the international situation, i.e., the Soviet threat, was more important to them.

"In a more restricted session after the plenary meeting, I gave a rundown on the major international questions:

"-- Our attitude and policy toward the Soviet Union remains unchanged. We are still wary of its hegemonial designs. It does not matter where Moscow's initial target is, for either way the danger exists over time. I made this point in response to the recent Chinese emphasis that Moscow threatens the West more than China. I outlined the SALT discussions at