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2 -
Sino-US Relations
4.
The Lord Privy Seal went on to express anxiety
over Sino-US relations. We and other friends of both
countries did not wish to see any deterioration. He had
taken note of the remarks of Vice Minister Zhang that morning and was grateful for them. Did the Vice Premier
have any views?
5
In
Vice Premier Ji said that full diplomatic
relations had been established with the US in 1979.
the past three years relations had been good and had developed well. But there was a problem over the Taiwan issue, which was a question of China's sovereignty. President Reagan and his administration tended to make accommodations to a minority of people in Taiwan instead of the majority in China, who consisted of one billion people. The administration should abide by the principles of the Joint Communique on the establishment of relations,
and should respect the sovereignty and independence of
China.
6.
The Communique recognised the Government of the People's Republic of China as the sole legal Government of China, and Taiwan itself as part of China, and a Chinese
province. On the other hand, the US felt that it had obligations to the security of Taiwan. The US had the
Taiwan Relations Act. These two aspects were incompatible.
7.
On the issue of Taiwan the US had intervened in
China's internal affairs and violated the principles of
the Joint Communique. The crux of the matter was US arms
sales. After the joint communique had been signed, there was no agreement during the Carter administration on arms
sales. The Chinese had shown tolerance and taken into
consideration the fact that this matter had been bequeathed
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