Japan–China Joint Communiqué

Japan at the time also carried the debt of gratitude to Nationalist China, as Chiang Kai-shek made the announcement of "returning virtue for malice" (uramini mukuiruni tokuwo motte suru) and repatriated all the Japanese troops.

In terms of security interests, Japan wanted to restore its relations with China in order to set the tone for a peaceful diplomatic relationship after years of war.

At first, trade was restricted due to events such as the Korean War, a Chinese embargo on Japan in 1958, and tensions regarding the recognition of Taiwan.

Prime Minister Tanaka made the restoration of relations between Japan and China an issue of priority in his agenda, hence his pursuing of the Joint Communique.

[10] Firstly, the Nixon administration removed travel and trading barriers, as well as proposed a more serious dialogue with Peking due to Cold War politics and the US–Soviet situation.

However, due to decolonization and the admission of numerous Third World states to the General Assembly, Washington lost its grip on the UN and could no longer sustain the moratorium.

Thus, the Chinese representation issue was considered as an "important question" which required a two-thirds vote of the General Assembly for a resolution to pass.

The 17 UN members during the General Assembly declared that the existence of the PRC was "a reality that could not be changed to suit the myth of a so-called Republic of China, fabricated out of a portion of Chinese territory", and that the ROC were "unlawful authorities" that remained there only because of the permanent presence of the US Armed Forces.

In short, Taipei's failure to remain in the UN's Security Council and the General Assembly, along with the Sino-US rapprochement, pushed the Japanese government towards achieving normalization with Peking through establishing the Joint Communique and ultimately severing diplomatic relations with the ROC.

Japan negotiated to emphasize the existence of a peaceful relationship between the two countries and leave the specific timing of the end of the state of war unspecified.

However, the LDP was hesitant to approve China's proposal, especially since the first two points suggested Japan would have to abolish their peace treaty with Taiwan.

[12] Source[11] The outline proposal in which the Foreign Minister of Japan, Masayoshi Ōhira, and Foreign Minister of China, Ji Pengfei, agreed upon for the Japan–China Joint Declaration can be seen as follows: Source[13] The governments of Japan and China agreed upon a draft Joint declaration as follows: The sections in parentheses are as appears in the original document.

Accompanying PM Tanaka were Minister for Foreign Affairs Masayoshi Ōhira, Chief Cabinet Secretary Susumu Nikaido, and other government officials.

PM Tanaka and FM Ōhira had an earnest and frank exchange of views with Premier Zhou Enlai and Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs Ji Pengfei on the question of normalizing relations between Japan and China, as well as other problems and matters of interest between the two countries.

These survey results showed that a large proportion of the population had improved feelings toward China after the Joint Communique was agreed upon.

This was mainly because of China's withdrawal of any war compensation claims made to the Japanese people in addition to their approval of the United States–Japan Security Treaty.

Taipei delayed the mission of Tanaka's special envoy, Etsusaburo Shiina, so that it coincided with the 41st anniversary of the September 18 Mukden Incident, an infamous episode in the difficult course of Sino–Japanese relations.

When Shiina met with new ROC Premier Chiang Ching-kuo and Vice President Yen Chia-kan, he was greeted with rare mass demonstrations.

[15] In response to the situation, Chiang Kai-shek's son, Chiang Ching-kuo, in his inaugural speech on June 13, 1972, reassured citizens at a time of national diversity by confirming the stance of Nationalist China (ROC) that there were only "one conflict" (the struggle between the humanitarian rule of the Three Principles of the People and the tyrannical rule of Chinese communists), "one war" (the recovery of the mainland), "one responsibility" (the elimination of the communists), and "one outcome" (the victory of Nationalist China).

For example, Taipei's high-ranking civil servants accompanying commercial missions to Japan were introduced as simple experts with ordinary passports.

[19] In terms of economic impacts of the communique, despite the deteriorated diplomatic relations with Japan, Taiwan's trade with many countries continued to flourish.

These supporters acted as check-and-balance mechanisms to prevent the Japanese government from going too far in improving Japan–China relations at the expense of sacrificing Taiwan's interests.