Canberra, 8 March 1972
1090. Secret Immediate
Personal for Renouf from Minister.
China Dialogue
Para 4 of our tel. 1078.1
On this matter you should at an appropriate stage in your discussions say that you have been instructed to say that the Prime Minister’s remarks, which were given in answers to ‘questions without notice’ from a TV interviewer, should not be interpreted (as the Chinese Mission in New York apparently had been inclined to do on the basis of an incomplete New York Times report) as breaking new ground in Australian policy by endorsing or attempting to promote the concept of a separate, independent Taiwan.
Such a concept, as we are well aware, and as the Prime Minister had indicated in the course of his answer, was not in accord with the policy either (underlined) of the ROC or PRC.
What the Prime Minister had said about the independence of the ROC and the jurisdiction of its government was no more than a reflection of our recognition of the ROC as a state in international law (inherent in the fact of our maintaining diplomatic relations with the ROC) and of the territorial limits of its government’s effective jurisdiction.
You should go on to emphasise that in the same answer the Prime Minister had said that ‘we also take the view that the resolution of the problems between Mainland China and Taiwan is one for those two parts of China, to be decided by them’, and that ‘both parts on either side of the Taiwan Strait recognise that they belong to one China, and we can’t deny that’.
[NAA: A1838, 3107/38/18/2, i]
1 Document 312.