Japan Sought Softer G-7 Wording on China at 1989 Summit

Tokyo, Dec. 23 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese government sought to avoid harsh criticism of China in a Group of Seven joint statement at its 1989 summit, according to diplomatic documents disclosed by Japan's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday. Over the G-7 summit in France in July 1989, the Japanese ministry took the position of avoiding damage to Japan's basic relations with China while remaining a member of the West, the documents showed. The ministry aimed for any mentioning of human rights issues in China to be indirect in a G-7 statement. However, a statement draft presented by France, the summit's chair, denounced the Tiananmen Square incident in Beijing on June 4 in the same year as a brutal crackdown and called for sanctions against China, including a suspension of high-level exchanges. Briefed about the draft, then Japanese Prime Minister Sousuke Uno showed concern about the strong wording, prompting the Foreign Ministry to propose to other G-7 countries that the statement should note that the G-7 had no intention to isolate China. Negotiations on the statement were deadlocked, however. On the first day of the summit, Uno had a meeting with Jacques Attali, then special adviser to the French president. Attali showed a negative response to the Japanese proposal, saying that it was unproductive to mention in the G-7 statement the group's intention not to seek the isolation of China. Uno then suggested that the statement could call on China not to isolate itself. Following the last-ditch talks, the final draft was drawn up, including a sentence expressing hope that Chinese authorities would avoid self-isolation and pave the way for China's return to cooperative ties with other countries, while referring to the Tiananmen Square incident as "violent repression." It was adopted by the G-7 leaders. Behind Japan's efforts to soften the wording on China appeared to be pressure from the domestic business circle, which emphasized trade with China. Furthermore, Uno was involved in a sex scandal at home at the time, apparently intending to use the G-7 summit to bolster his administration, with a House of Councillors election slated to follow the summit. Among the disclosed documents, there was a memo of then Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Takamori Makino's remarks that highlighting the prime minister's presence in the G-7 summit was the only way to save the administration. At the 1989 summit, Uno tried to position himself as the representative of Asia, conveying the position of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that an unstable situation in China was unwelcome. In the diplomatic documents, Japan's efforts at the summit are described as successful. Nevertheless, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party suffered a historic defeat in the subsequent Upper House election, and Uno left office later in that year. END