FOR PRESS PM. No. 27/ 1972
VISIT OF PRESIDENT NIXON TO CHINA
Statement by the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon.
William McMahon, CH, MP
When President Nixon last July announced his intention
of visiting China, I wi-. comed it without reservation and wished him
good fortune in an initiative which had the full support of Australia.
Now that the visit is successfully concluded and a
joint communique has been released, we can take stock of what was
accomplished and just as importantly what still remains to be
achieved.. The first point I make is that the fact of the visit
itself -quite apart from what was discussed and agreed during it
was a gain for all of us. For the isit unprecedented in itself
and in its bold disregard of established practice marked in a
dramatic fashion the importance each side attaches to having both
a clearer idea of the other's preoccupations and a more normal
relationship. Secondly, it is clear from the co-mmunique itself that
this first high-level contact has not resulted in any fundamental
reversals of foreign policies by either side.
Indeed, that was not to be expected for, as the
communique notes, " there are essential differenccs between China
and the United States in their social systems and foreign policies"
Thus on issues such as Indo-China and Korea, the two sides were
apparently able to do no more than to restate, and no doubt to
elaborate, their established positions.
It is worthwhile noting that both sides by their
attitudes during the talks made it clear that neither is about to
abandon old friends.
The two sides were able to agree on some general
principles of conduct which should govern relations between states
and which the two sides wqere themselves prepared to apply to their
mutual relations. These princi les, though couchel in the language of the
Bandung Declaration, arfequally the principles of the United
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Nations Charter, to which China now subscribes; and they are
principles which have long underlain in practice Australia's own
foreign policy. With these principles of international relations in
mind, the two sides went on to state a number of agreed points.
* I draw Particular attention to three of these:
" Neither should seek hegemony in the Asia Pacific region
and each is opposed to the effort by any other country
or group of countries to establish such hegemony."'
" Both wish to reduce the danger of international military
conflict."
" Progress towards the normalisation of relations between
China and the United States is in the interests of all
countries." The first two of these points augur well for the peace
Of the region of which Australia is part. But it would be wrong to
suppose that their mere assertion, even coupled with the reiteration
of the Bandung Principles, is all that is required.
For as the US side stated in the talks, " Peace in Asia
and peace in the world require efforts"~ and I emphasise " efforts",
which are more than words " to reduce immediate tensions and to
eliminate the basic causes of conflict."
The reduction of tensions is thus not enough in itself;
what is also needed is the elimination of basic causes of conflict.
In this respect, it would be foolish to ignore that the Chinese
side reiterated its support for what it describes as " the struggles
of all the oppressed people and nations for freedom and liberation".
How do these words square with the Bandung Principles?
What do they mean in practice, and how will they be understood by
our friends and neighbours in Asia who are ' Laced with subversive
threats to their independence?
As to the third of the points to which I have drawn
attention Progress toward the normalisation of Sino/ American
relations the Australian Government sees great advantages in that
process, and notes with satisfaction that a beginning is to be
made with " people to people contacts the development of bilateral
trade, and the maintenance of official contacts through various
channels. As long ago as May 13,1971, I said " That we want normal
bilateral relations with the People's Republic of China."
So the US approach is in fact entirely in line with
what we ourselves have been trying to do, in accordance with our
long-standing objective announced well before President Nixon's
statement last July ofL the progressive normalisation of relations
with China. es/ 3
3
Unfortunately, we have not been able to make much progress
towards that objective. The prime reason has been the difficult
question of the Republic of China with its government on Taiwan.
As with President Nixon, so with us the Chinese side has
taken the position that this is the crucial question obstructing the
normalisation of relations.
Recognising the difficulty of resolving that question, we
had wished to move first in other areas of our bilateral relations,
such as trade and scientific and cultural relations.
I note that in respect of the United States, the PRC is
prepared not to make Taiwan the stumbling-block in the way of
normalising relations.
It may be that Peking will now be prepared to do the same
in our case; we shall certainly test out the Chinese on this.
But it equally may be that the PRC has one policy in respectof
the USA, which is a super power, and another in respect of middle
powers such as Australia even though in the joint communique the
Chinese side stated that " All nations, big or small, should be
equal." We shall hope that the PRC will live up to its own words and
will follow a consistent policy, but not being surprised if in
the event the PRC has one policy for the big and another for the
not so big. Finally, I make again the point that I made last July:
President Nixon's initiative in visiting Peking is a beginning,
an exploration, not a settlement of matters at issue even between
these two powers, let alone of wider issues.
But there is no doubt in the mind of the Australian
Government that the visit has turned out, as we expected, to be
a good beginning, one which opens up new prospects not only for the
two participants but ultimately for a just and secure peace in
Asia and beyond.
CANBERRA, 28 February 1972
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