Towards China
Sir: Following embattled Canada': agreement with China on mutual recognition and an early exchange of ambassadors, China now has diplomatic relations with fifty-one out of the 127 member countries of the United Nations. Yet Britain —which was one of the first to take the new China by the dip- lomatic hand and is one of China's oldest and increasingly important trading partners—still maintain; only a chargé d'affaires in the Chinese capital.
China's, unlike South Africa's and Rhodesia's, isolation being largely of the rest of the world's making, steps to end it ought to have priority. Here again Britain', third—and hopefully lucky—bid to redress her own exclusion from the European Community gives her a special status to pave the way for China's belated admission to the United Nations, whose authority it could strengthen more than anything else. W. Grey 12 Arden Road, Finohley, London N3
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