Chinese senior official to visit

Press, 29 May 1985, Page 9

Chinese senior official to visit

PA Wellington Another important Chinese Government official will arrive in New Zealand next week for a 10-day visit. Mr Han Nianlong, ViceMinister of Foreign Affairs and president of the People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, will arrive in Christchurch on June 6.

His visit follows up the high-level New Zealand visit by the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, Mr Hu Yaobang, and officials in April and the trip by Premier Zhao Ziyang in 1983. Mr Han is considered an important and well respected figure in Chinese foreign affairs. His institute’s role is to play host to foreign parliamentarians visiting China. Mr Han was host to the Prime Minister, Mr Lange (then Leader of the Opposition), in March last year, and to a former Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Brian Taiboys, and the Ambassador to Washington, Sir Wallace Rowling, earlier this year. Mr Han, aged 75, will be accompanied by five officials on his informal visit, made at Mr Lange’s invitation.

He will tour Lincoln College, Omarama, and Mount Cook before travelling to Palmerston North and arriving in Wellington on June 10.

In Wellington, Mr Han is expected to participate in a discussion with members of the Wellington branch of the Institute of International Affairs, meet senior Government officials and address Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee. He will travel to Auckland via Taupo, Rotorua, and Hamilton, where he will visit the Ruakura Animal research Station, jaefore leaving for Australia. ’