Revisiting Foundations: Methods for Japan and China on the Taiwan Problem

The Significance of Diplomatic Precedent

Sino-Japanese relations have been in a state of turmoil since Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae’s November 7 feedback in Weight loss plan proceedings concerning a possible “Taiwan contingency,” involving China’s use of pressure to close down sea lanes within the area or in any other case transfer to reunify with the island, that would require Japan to train its proper to collective self-defense.

“When issues get overly difficult, return to fundamentals and rethink them” is usually provided recommendation, however within the case of the current state of affairs between Japan and the Folks’s Republic of China, this dictum is one we should heed. This implies a revisiting of the 1972 Joint Communiqué of the Authorities of Japan and the Authorities of the Folks’s Republic of China. The third article of this doc, which normalized relations between the 2 states greater than a half-century in the past, reads:

The Authorities of the Folks’s Republic of China reiterates that Taiwan is an inalienable a part of the territory of the Folks’s Republic of China. The Authorities of Japan totally understands and respects this stand of the Authorities of the Folks’s Republic of China, and it firmly maintains its stand underneath Article 8 of the Potsdam Proclamation.

A strict studying of this joint declaration signifies that Japan should transcend merely expressing an understanding of China’s claims to “respect” them. Briefly, it signifies that the Japanese authorities ought to chorus from making statements or taking actions that run counter the Chinese language place expressed right here.

What this implies is that the Japanese authorities ought to keep away from all actions seeming to acknowledge Taiwan as one thing aside from a PRC territory. Particularly, this implies being cautious about any steps that could be construed as publicly acknowledging Taiwan as an impartial political entity on the worldwide stage.

Taking this a step additional, we must also view this as implying that any form of politically vital phrases or deeds—setting apart private-sector interactions in financial, cultural, sports activities, and different spheres—needs to be averted by representatives of the Japanese authorities. The upshot is that Japanese officers should be terribly cautious in regards to the appropriateness of their interactions with political leaders and different key figures from Taiwan.

It’s hardly stunning, then, that Beijing has responded negatively to Prime Minister Takaichi’s assertion. Ultimately, the Japanese authorities have to stick to the stance of respecting the Chinese language place on the Taiwan challenge.

Warning Wanted on Each Sides

On the identical time, the 1972 declaration additionally spelled out features that the Chinese language aspect should pay heed to—specifically, that Tokyo honors its aspect of the discount according to Article 8 of the Potsdam Proclamation, declaring partly: “Japanese sovereignty shall be restricted to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as we decide.” The basic which means right here is that, upon its give up on the finish of World Conflict II, Japan gave up its former colonial holdings, together with Taiwan, with their disposition to be decided internationally (by the Allied victors) thereafter. The importance of this passage is that the Taiwan query isn’t one to be determined by China unilaterally, however moderately as a global challenge. China, too, is required to indicate its understanding of this place.

The 1972 Joint Communiqué and the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China, signed subsequently in 1978, additionally symbolize agreements between the 2 sides that, as spelled out within the former doc, “Japan and China shall of their mutual relations settle all disputes by peaceable means and shall chorus from the use or menace of pressure.” Merely said, which means any battle arising in reference to Taiwan, by definition a global matter, is one which China should not have interaction in with pressure as a instrument for its decision. And Japan, for its half, is required to keep away from its personal use of pressure and to hunt decision by way of peaceable means.

If Prime Minister Takaichi’s phrases or actions, or the response of the Chinese language authorities to them, contradict the content material of the 1972 Joint Communiqué, then it falls upon each nations to mirror significantly on the spirit of this doc.

(Initially revealed in Japanese on December 8, 2025. Banner picture: Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei, at left, and Chinese language Premier Zhou Enlai, at proper, signing the Sino-Japanese Joint Communiqué on September 29, 1972. © Kyōdō.)