Canberra, 13 July 1972
Restricted
China
In an article written for the FER1 (and reprinted in The Bulletin of 1 July), Mr Whitlam stated ‘I choose Peking as the government of China, of which Taiwan is a province’ .
2. If this accurately reflects ALP policy and the position Labor will take if and when in office, the Canadian formula (which hitherto the ALP has espoused) will be irrelevant.
3. I believe the FER article appeared some weeks after Mr Bowen’s statement of 9 May.2 It could be, therefore, that—oh irony of ironies—Mr Whitlam was prompted to make his (novel) statement by the Minister’s assertion that the PRC was requiring acknowledgement of PRC sovereignty over Taiwan, not just acknowledgement of the PRC’s claim, as a condition for establishing diplomatic relations.
4. It may be, of course, that Mr Whitlam’s statement was not calculated but was rather a slip of his (or Fitzgerald’s)3 pen. But even if so, it will now be very difficult for a Labor Government to persuade the PRC to accept the Canadian formula.
[NAA: A1838, 3107/38, x]
1 Presumably the Far Eastern Economic Review.
2 The text of the statement is given in Current Notes, vol. 43, 1972, pp. 189–201. In relation to the PRC Bowen stated: ‘Australia’s position is that we are willing to “recognise” the People’s Republic of China and to exchange diplomatic representatives in accordance with normal international practice. In normal international practice, by extending recognition and establishing diplomatic relations neither party is required—or to be assumed—to approve or disapprove the policies of the other; neither party is required—or to be assumed—to pass judgment upon disputed territorial claims of the other party. But, as we understand it, the People’s Republic of China insists as a condition of establishing diplomatic relations that we acknowledge it as the sole legal government of China and as having sovereignty over Taiwan … In view of our long–standing relations with the Government on Taiwan … Australia is naturally and quite properly reluctant and indeed unwilling to submit to Peking’s stipulation that it should abandon its friend’ .
3 S.A. Fitzgerald, Research Fellow, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, and adviser to Whitlam.