CIRCULAR 'O' 116/81
HOME 'B' 61/81
CONFIDENTIAL
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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SWIA 2AH
7 July 1981
OFFICIAL CONTACTS WITH TAIWAN
1. This circular supersedes Sir D Greenhill's circular 'O' 3/73 (Home 'A' 2/73) of 3 January 1973. Although much of the contents of that circular is still valid and is repeated here, the situation has changed in a number of ways which necessitate amendments to the instructions. For convenience, general information about trado promotion in Taiwan and consular questions is also set out below. The substance of this circular will be incorporated in DSP; amendments will be issued in due course.
HMG'S ATTITUDE TO TAIWAN
2. HMG do not and never have regarded Taiwan as a state. We share this position with every other government. (The parties principally involved, the government of the People's Republic of China and the Nationalist authorities in Taiwan. both regard the island as a province of China.)
3.
HMG do not regard the Nationalist authorities in Taiwan as a government and have not done so since 1950 when we ceased to recognise then as the government of China (which they still purport to be). Our position is now shared by the overwhelming majority of other governments, including those of all our major allies (the United States as from 1979), and all our EC partners.
BACKGROUND
4. Following the defeat of the Chinese Nationalists on the mainland of China in 1949 and their withdrawal to Taiwan, HMG recognised the Chinese People's government as the sole legal government of China in January 1950. We continued to maintain a consulate in Taiwan until 1972; but it dealt only with the Taiwan provincial government and not the central Nationalist authorities in Taipei. Exequaturs for HM Consuls were not sought from the Nationalist authorities since this would have implied recognition. On 13 March 1972, HMG agreed to exchange Ambassadors with the People's Republic of China and undertook to withdraw the consulate from Taiwan.
5. We did not then and have not since subscribed to Peking's claim that Taiwan is a province of China. In the joint communiqué issued in 1972 HMG ‘acknowledged' the position of the Chinese government that Taiwan is a province of the People's Republic of China but this did not entail acceptance of the Chinese claim. A private undertaking was however given to the Chinese that we would no longer express in public the view which we have long held that sovereignty over Taiwan is undetermined. If pressed as to our view we undertook to limit any reply to an agreed but somewhat complicated formula which inter alia states that: We think that the Taiwan question is China's internal affair to be settled by the Chinese people themsleves'. (The full texts of the joint communiqué and of the agreed formula are given at Annex A.)
CONFIDENTIAL