TNAG-0781-FCO40-985-Involvement-of-Hong-Kong-in-air-services-agreements-1978 — Page 284

CONFIDENTIAL

Reference

I the

Political issues facing the Japanese

16.

(b) with Taiwan

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Japanese contact with the Taiwan authorities appears to have been delayed until the autumn of 1973, by which time negotiations with the Chinese were at a stalemate and Japan faced with the Chinese proposal that it exert pressure on Taiwan. The channel of contact that it apparently sought to use was the pro-Taiwan faction of the LDP. An LDP diet-men's delegation that visited Taiwan at the end of September 1973 was asked to sound out/lationalist government on the possibility of CAL changing its name and emblem and discontinuing its services to Osaka. Nothing came of this initiative, and Japanese press reports in November claimed that Taiwan was taking a strong stand against any major changes in the Japan-Taiwan air services and threatening retaliatory measures against Japan if services were cut.

17. A further attempt to discuss the ASA with the Taiwan authorities was made in February/March 1974, this time at a more formal level when Itagaki, the head of the Exchange Association (the Japanese Government's unofficial Liaison Office in Taiwan), visited Taiwan with instructions to impress upon the authorities there the Japanese Government's determination to conclude an air services agreement with China. by that time the Japanese six-point programme was known to the Taiwan authorities. Itagaki reported no progress in persuading them to accept the Japanese position. A principal source of opposition in Taiwan was said to be the Prime Minister Chiang Ching-kuo. Shortly before the signing of the agreement, the Japanese press carried reports from Taiwan indicating that, should an agreement be concluded, the Taiwan authorities would immediately cancel air services between Japan and Taiwan and would close Taiwan Airspace to Japanese aircraft, a threat that was promptly carried out on the conclusion of the agreement. It appears that the Taiwan authorities knew in advance of Ohira's proposed statement on the status that Japan would accord CAL and that their, intransigence was increased accordingly.

Resumption of air services between Japan and Taiwan

18. Consideration of some formula to enable a resumption of these services appears to have started soon after the signing of the Japan-China agreement; but it was not until July 1975 that negotiations seem to have reached the stage of a non-governmental agreement. This was signed on 9 July by representatives of the Japan Exchange Association and the Taiwan East Asia Relations Association. The moving force for the conclusion of an agreement appears to have been a group of LDP officials committed to close relations with Taiwan which numbered the then Foreign Minister. Miyazawa. Their task was eased on the political front by a statement on 1 July, 1975, by Miyazawa, regretting misunderstandings caused by the Japanese Government's' statement the year before on the status of Taiwan's flag and declaring that no one, including Japan, could deny the fact there were countries which recognised Taiwan's flag as a national flag.

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