About 50 per cent of China's foreign trade is negotiated at the Chinese Export Commodities Fair (the Canton or Kwangchow Fair), making it a major instrument in Chinese foreign trade activities. However, it also provides a rich experience for China specialists who wish to observe and participate in the workings of an important Chinese institution over a considerable period of time. The experience is particularly valuable for anyone with an academic interest in Chinese foreign policy, for the Fair can provide an opportunity to gain not only insights into the day-to-day workings of the Chinese foreign trade process, but also into various trends in Chinese foreign policy generally.

”France and China,” said Alain Peyrefitte, the Gaullist leader, in Peking two years ago, “ are objective allies.” In a broader sense it could be said today that China and the European Community are objective allies - even though they do not yet enjoy a formal relationship. The Chinese leadership has consistently and strongly supported the enlargement of the European Economic Community (EEC) which from the beginning of 1973 has joined Great Britain, the Irish Republic and Denmark to the original six founders (Belgium, France, West Germany, Holland, Italy and Luxembourg) in a venture which promises at long last an institutional framework within which Western Europe could move towards economic and political unity.

”France and China,” said Alain Peyrefitte, the Gaullist leader, in Peking two years ago, “ are objective allies.” In a broader sense it could be said today that China and the European Community are objective allies - even though they do not yet enjoy a formal relationship. The Chinese leadership has consistently and strongly supported the enlargement of the European Economic Community (EEC) which from the beginning of 1973 has joined Great Britain, the Irish Republic and Denmark to the original six founders (Belgium, France, West Germany, Holland, Italy and Luxembourg) in a venture which promises at long last an institutional framework within which Western Europe could move towards economic and political unity.

After the Great Leap Forward the Chinese Ministry of Education designed new programmes for teaching and administration. These guidelines, the “1963 Temporary Work Regulations for Full-time Middle and Primary Schools,” which are translated below, were drafted during 1961 and 1962, promulgated in 1963 but only became generally available during the Cultural Revolution when, in 1967, they were reprinted and circulated for criticism, to serve as negative examples for those drawing up new educational reforms. These 1963 regulations were an attempt to structure a school environment in which the teaching and learning of academic subjects would flourish. They provide documentary evidence for the concentration on expertness and “quality” which characterized educational policy during the period between the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Moreover, the regulations illustrate how the policy-makers defined “quality” education; they describe the specific measures which the authorities felt were necessary to guarantee a school setting conducive to that goal; and they indicate what values the policy-makers were willing to trade-off in pursuit of educational “quality.”