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JAPAN STUDIED FEASIBILITY OF TWO-CHINA POLICY IN 1960S: DOCUMENT

2003-12-24 14:32:59

    Tokyo, Dec. 24 (CNA) Japan paid much attention to the cross-Taiwan Strait question in the 1960s and looked into the possibility of adopting a "two-China" policy, according to a confidential document released Wednesday by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

    The document said that although the Japanese government insisted on its "one-China" policy on the surface at that time, it also studied the feasibility of adopting a "two-China" policy.

    In December 1964, then Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato said while receiving a British envoy to Japan that officially, his government only recognizes one China and sticks to the policy only because both mainland China and Taiwan insist there is only one China, according to the document.

    Sato stressed that he himself knows clearly there are two regimes that coexist in China, the document said.

    Meanwhile, then Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister Ohira Masayoshi said at a Japan-U.K. meeting held in May, 1964 that Japan hopes that Taiwan will be able to keep its seat in the United Nations if mainland China joins the organization, according to the document.

    Furthermore, the document revealed that around the same time, the then British minister of foreign and commonwealth affairs indicated that London believes that in dealing with the China question, Taiwan and mainland China should be handled separately. He even suggested that Taiwan's Nationalist government should abandon its unrealistic mentality of still being the ruler of all of China, according to the document.

(By C.N. Chieh and P.C. Tang)

Enditem/Li