Telegram, French Ambassador to China Claude Arnaud to French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, No. 998/1000, 'Follow-up to the Visit of M. Deng Xiaoping to France'

Beijing, 26 May 1975 17h30

Addressed to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs; No 998/1000

Communicated via the department to: Moscow 339/41 – Tehran 1/3 – Tokyo 186/88 – Washington 384/86.

Subject: Follow-up to the visit of M. Deng Xiaoping to France

Princess Ashraf Pavlavi, sister of the Shah of Iran, who passed through Beijing on the way to North Korea, is among the first foreign visitors received by M. Deng Xiaoping after his visit to France. The meeting took place on 21 May. M. Qiao Guanhua was present, as well as the Iranian Ambassador to Beijing.

The latter has told my first colleague that he was surprised by the vigor and the insistence with which both the Vice Premier and the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs advised the princess to make sure that Iran will tighten and deepen its links to France. Their own country, underlined the two Chinese leaders, would also act in this way.

We know that for several years the Chinese have advised French-speaking politicians from Africa not to cut ties with France and to maintain good relations with it. It seems that they are now ready to go further, extending their intervention in favor of cooperation with France to other developing countries and underlining the importance that they attach to tightening links with Paris.

This is one of the first effects, observed in Beijing, of the recent visit of Deng Xiaoping to France. It is important.

Arnaud