Canberra, 12 December 1972
6062. Secret Priority
China Policy
Your telegrams 57301 and 5731.2
You should speak to Huang as follows.
2. We are naturally disappointed that China has not accepted more of our draftcommunique. In particular, while pleased that China is now no longer insistingon its original Taiwan formula, we are disappointed that China would not agreeto our Taiwan formula, which followed the precedent set by China with Canadaand which has been used often since then. This year alone, the Canadian formulahas been used by three countries (Argentina, Greece and Malta), the most recent(Greece) being on 5 June. We cannot understand why China should wish to treatAustralia differently from those countries, and we will have difficulty inexplaining to the Australian public why China should have found it necessary to take this attitude. Therefore you should make another effort to persuade Huangon the above lines.
3. If he rejects this approach, you should then say that nevertheless, in the broader interests of future Australia–Chinese relations, we are prepared to depart from the Canadian formula and to adopt the language used in the communique with Britain, as follows.
‘ The Australian Government recognises the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal Government of China, and acknowledges the position of the Chinese Government that Taiwan is a province of the People’s Republic of China’ .
4. You should point out that a reference in the communique to removing our official representation from Taiwan is unnecessary since we have already made it clear (our telegram 5975,3 para 7) that we shall make it public when issuing the communique that we will withdraw the Australian Embassy in Taipei. Moreover, such a parallel statement was all that China originally asked of us (para 5(a) of your telegram 5628),4 and China would be going back on that position if it now insisted upon including a reference in the communique itself. Finally, in a spirit of helpful compromise, we are prepared to name in that parallel statement a terminal date—say, five weeks from the date of issuing the communique—by when the Australian Embassy would be withdrawn from Taipei and the ROC Embassy, Consulate–General and Consulates, from Australia.
5. If Huang agrees to the foregoing, or an[y]way agrees to refer it to Peking, you should rest there. But if, despite your pressing him hard and at length, he will not even agree to refer it, you may offer to recommend to Canberra the following formula.
‘ The Australian Government recognises the Government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal Government of China, acknowledges the position of the Chinese Government that Taiwan is a province of the People’s Republic of China, and has decided to remove its official representation from Taiwan by … ‘
6. As for the remainder of the communique, you should say that, conditional on satisfaction on the Taiwan para, we are prepared to accept the text in your telegram 5731, even though it accepts little of our draft, with the following changes.
(a) Use of ‘the Australian Government’ throughout.
(b) Deletion in para 1 of ‘as from’ . for the reasons explained in para 5(c) of our telegram 5975. (It should help here that we are now offering to name a terminal date for withdrawal of Embassies.)
(c) In the final para, change ‘provide with each other all’ to ‘provide each other with all’ .
7. On the matter of unofficial arrangements (not ‘offices’ . in Taiwan and Australia, you should say
(a) That we will not establish an office of the Australian Government in Taipei nor allow the Taiwan authorities to establish an office in Australia.
(b) That we have a substantial volume of trade with Taiwan which will continue under private arrangements. (If Huang demurs, you should suggest that you agree to differ.)
8. Finally, you should tell Huang that the Prime Minister much appreciates Premier Chou En–lai’s message and that when agreement is reached on the proposed joint communique we should like to publish the exchange of messages.
[NAA: A6366, PA1972112T]
1 Document 359.
2 It conveyed the full text of the final Chinese draft communique
3 Document 354.
4 Document 352.