Canberra, 13 December 1972
6089. Secret Immediate
China
Your telegram 5747.1
We can accept ‘have as from today decided upon’ . and the minor amendments in your paragraph 18. If Huang is instructed likewise, and is also empowered to accept our Taiwan paragraph, the communique will presumably have been agreed except for its date of issue.
2. If Huang cannot accept ‘have as from today decided upon’ . you may as a helpful gesture accept the Chinese formulations ‘have decided upon mutual recognition and the establishment of diplomatic relations as from … ‘. In doing so, you should point out that we have already agreed to name a terminal date for the withdrawal of official representation from Taiwan and Australia, and have made plain publicly in Australia—and now assure Huang—that it is Government policy to establish an Embassy in Peking as soon as possible in the New Year.
3. If Huang cannot accept our Taiwan paragraph, you may then float the formulation in para 5 of our 6062.2
4. If the question of ROC property is raised again, you should say that, while we can do nothing legally before the communique is issued, once it has been issued we could warn prospective purchasers of property in the name of the ROC that, if they make the purchase, they risk having their title challenged on the grounds that the property belonged to the Government of China and that the sellers had had no authority to sell. We would not normally give such a warning but are prepared to do so in this case.
[NAA: A1838, 3107/38/18/6, ii]
1 Document 366.
2 Document 364.