China Urged Japan to Address Taiwan Issue in 1994: Records

Tokyo, Dec. 24 (Jiji Press)–China repeatedly urged Japan to address its concerns related to Taiwan ahead of then Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa’s visit to China in March 1994, according to Japanese diplomatic records disclosed Wednesday. Concerned about possible deterioration in Japan-China relations, Japanese diplomatic officials at the time advised the prime minister’s side to give consideration to Beijing’s anxiety, the records showed. China is currently claiming that the Taiwan issue is the core of its core interests and has been criticizing Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s parliamentary remarks last month that China’s possible use of force against Taiwan could constitute a so-called survival-threatening situation for Japan, in which the country could exercise its right to collective self-defense. As of around 1994, China was tolerant of other countries engaging in economic exchanges with Taiwan but opposed them having official relations with the self-governing island. Taiwan, however, increased foreign trips by high-ranking officials. In February that year, then President Lee Teng-hui visited Southeast Asia as a holiday trip, stoking a sense of crisis among Chinese officials. According to the diplomatic records, then Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan met with then Japanese Ambassador to China Michihiko Kunihiro in mid-March and described Lee’s trip as “vacation diplomacy.” Kunihiro responded that the trip was unrelated to Japan. Tang, however, said that things would get complicated if Lee visited Japan to attend a reunion at Kyoto University, his alma mater. At a Japan-China foreign ministers’ meeting in January 1994, Beijing insisted that mutual visits by Japanese and Taiwanese officials should not be allowed. At a high-level meeting around the same time, a Chinese official expressed displeasure over a Taiwan visit by a then Japanese parliamentary vice minister, stating that it would hurt the sentiment of Chinese people. In response to these requests from China, Kunihiro said in an official telegram he sent to then Japanese Foreign Minister Tsutomu Hata that it would be “advantageous for the Japanese side to clearly show its stance over Taiwan (at a Japan-China summit) without waiting for the Chinese side to say anything.” In a document on pending issues between Japan and China, the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s China affairs division noted that a Japanese minister’s possible visit to Taiwan and Lee’s potential visit to Japan would provoke a backlash from China. “Taiwan is a delicate issue that could shake the foundations of Japan-China relations if handled with only one wrong step, so we need to continue dealing with it carefully,” the document stated. At a summit with Hosokawa on March 20, 1994, then Chinese Premier Li Peng said that it was unclear whether Taipei would make Japan a subject of its vacation diplomacy, but that he hoped that such a thing would not happen. In response, Hosokawa promised to abide by the 1972 Japan-China joint communique and maintain nongovernmental working relations between Japan and Taiwan. In the communique that normalized Japan-China diplomatic relations, Tokyo showed its intention to fully understand and respect Beijing’s stance over Taiwan. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]