Word: tanaka
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...week's end, with a few whisks of their Chinese writing brushes, Tanaka of Japan and Premier Chou En-lai of China signed an agreement to end "the state of war" between the two countries and establish diplomatic relations immediately. The summit was much more than a delayed coda to World War II however. The reconciliation between the two nations-one of them the world's fastest-growing industrial democracy, the other its most populous and doctrinaire Communist nation-had ended "an abnormal state of affairs," as Chou put it with considerable understatement. In resuming normal relations with...
...Tanaka-Chou communique, the Japanese managed to deal with the agonizing Taiwan issue by saying simply that Japan "understands and respects" Peking's claim to the island; known as the Dutch formula, that position went further than the Nixon-Chou communique (the U.S. merely "recognized" Peking's claim), but it still stopped short of an explicit repudiation of the Nationalist government...
Like President Nixon's trip last February, Tanaka's six-day visit was a mingling of televised rubbernecking (an estimated 70% of Japan's 27 million TV sets were tuned in to Tanaka's arrival) and "surprisingly frank" closed-door talks. Both sides, understandably, seemed preoccupied with symbolism as well as substance. In his welcoming speech, Chou spoke of China's past suffering from Japanese armies, saying that "we must remember such experiences and lessons." Tanaka limited himself to a terse acknowledgment that the "great troubles" that Japan had inflicted on China had given...
Nonetheless, the summit was relaxed and even breezy. When Tanaka laughingly complained that he was "slightly drunk" because he had had some potent Chinese mao-tai at his guest cottage, Chou assured him that he would "prefer mao-tai to vodka. It's smooth on the throat and doesn't go to your head." He added smilingly that Tanaka, a self-made construction millionaire who is not averse to taking a drink on occasion, "should be able to hold it." Tanaka's hour-long audience with Chairman Mao Tse-tung at midweek was equally jocular...
...with Soviet ambitions in mind that the Chinese got their Japanese guests to agree to a communique opposing attempts by other countries to "establish hegemony" in the Asia-Pacific area, a seeming rebuff to Moscow. But the Japanese are learning to play four-power politics too. Just before Premier Tanaka left for Peking, Tokyo coyly let it be known that he had written a warm letter to Soviet Party Boss Leonid Brezhnev, emphasizing that Japan wanted to develop close relations with Russia, as well as with China...