The administration of former US president Richard Nixon, eager to facilitate his 1972 trip to China, promised it would fire any US official encouraging Taiwan's independence and would withdraw its nuclear umbrella from Japan if Tokyo returned to expansionism, according to documents made public here.
Anxious for an opening with China's communist government amid the escalating Cold War with the Soviet Union, top Nixon aides also vowed to restrict US intelligence activities in the region and even secretly disavowed pro-Taiwan statements made by close political ally and future US president, Ronald Reagan.
These commitments are contained in formerly top-secret transcripts of negotiations held in Beijing ahead of Nixon's historic visit by then-US national security adviser Henry Kissinger and his deputy, Alexander Haig, with Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai (
The papers were obtained by the National Security Archive, a local research organization and released late last week.
The preparatory talks, which Kissinger began in Beijing in October 1971, soon revealed Zhou's deep-seated concern about the US stance on Taiwan -- and his fear Japan could return to its expansionist policies of the pre-World War II era.
According to the documents, the Chinese prime minister was displeased by demonstrations in support of Taiwan's independence held in New York and other cities and suspected the US CIA was trying to cobble together a Taiwanese independence movement.
Kissinger told Zhou that "he vastly overestimated the competence of the CIA."
"If you have information of any American engaging in those activities and you give me his name, I can promise you in the name of the president he will be removed," he said.
The Nixon aide also dismissed the importance of pro-Taiwanese statements made during a visit to Taiwan by Reagan, then governor of California, despite the fact that Reagan's trip had been sanctioned by the Nixon administration.
"He does not represent our foreign policy," Kissinger stated, adding that the trip was organized to placate the conservative wing of the Republican Party.
The exchange highlights the evolution of US Taiwan policy over the past three decades -- from the US switching of its diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1978 to President George W. Bush's statement last year that the US would do whatever it takes to defend Taiwan.
Back in January 1972, however, Washington seemed to be promising protection to Beijing, with Haig telling Zhou the US was "prepared to use our resources ... to deter threats against the People's Republic."
When Zhou spoke of what he saw as Tokyo's resurgent militarism, Kissinger made clear the US-Japanese military alliance could be reassessed if Tokyo were to adopt a more aggressive foreign police stance.
"In any military conflict which would be produced by an attempt by Japan to extend, I doubt very seriously that the nuclear umbrella would apply," he said.
Moreover, Kissinger made clear to his Chinese host that in case of Japan's massive rearmament "the traditional relationship between China and the United States would reassert itself."
In an obvious bid to get in Zhou's good graces, the US presidential adviser referred to Japan as a country with a "tribal outlook."
"The Japanese have no sensibility for the attitudes of other people because of this cultural concentration on themselves," he reasoned.
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