Canberra, undated
Secret
Mr Cooper’s Letter About the State of Affairs in Taiwan and
Australian Policy Towards China1
Mr Cooper wrote to you before he left Taipei giving his valedictory impressions of Taiwan and his views about Australian policy on the China question in general.
2. Since he is now back in Canberra there would seem to be no point in your replying to his letter. He will doubtless be calling on you, which will give you an opportunity to discuss his letter with him if you should wish to do so.
3. You will have seen from the letter that he sees the Nationalist regime in Taiwan in a not very favourable light, and is not too happy with some aspects of our China policy. I think he believes that we may have been taken in by the outward affability and competence of the G.R.C. technocrats and diplomats to the point of failing to understand that the regime is essentially militarist, corrupt and inefficient. He evidently feels that we are on the wrong track in contemplating the possibility of a permanently separate national status for Taiwan, and that we should be adjusting ourselves to what he regards as the probability of eventual reunion of Taiwan with China.
4. We would not disagree with a good deal of what he says. It is mainly on questions of emphasis and evaluation that we are inclined to differ from him. His views are not new to us; as he mentions in his letter, he has been in correspondence with me, and it might be helpful to you in any discussion you have with him if I attach a copy of my letter to him.2
5. To take up just a few of the points argued by Mr Cooper, his suggestion that our China policy should be postulated on the ‘hypothesis that Taiwan is part of China’ is not of course consistent with our long-standing policy that the people of Taiwan have the right to determine their own future, and I doubt whether Mr Cooper has taken adequate account of the grounds for this policy. Again, we have not argued, as Mr Cooper assumes, that the Taiwanese and the Mainland Chinese at present on the island may be expected to merge with one another. We have said only that they may well recognise a common interest in preserving their economic gains in independence from the Mainland. Nor have we suggested that Peking is likely to forego its claim to Taiwan. It has been suggested only that Peking may come for the time being to accept the impracticability of pressing its claim in the interests of a general international settlement. Mr Cooper recognises that ‘despite the inconsistencies in our position, our China policy has so far served our interests pretty well’; but his concluding speculations about what might happen to us (e.g. in respect of wheat sales if Canada should succeed in establishing relations with Peking) if we do not maintain the most complete flexibility in our policy will scarcely stand up to close scrutiny.
L.R. McIntyre
Deputy Secretary
[NAA: A1838, 519/3/1, x]
1 Document 133.
2 Document 131.