The Reluctant Embassy

Establishing, Maintaining and Ending Australian Diplomatic Representation in Taipei, 1966–72

Bibliographic Data

ID12350366
AuthorsJeremy Taylor (0000-0002-0448-0254, University of Sheffield, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume33
Issue2
Pages197-210
Publication date2009-05-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAsian Studies Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1035-7823 • E-ISSN: 1467-8403
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10357820902912988
OpenAlexW2072524880
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited8

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgments An earlier version of this paper was presented at the European Association of Taiwan Studies Conference held in Stockholm in April 2007. I thank various participants at that event for their comments. I also benefited from assistance from Tim Kendall, and from comments made by the anonymous reviewers of Asian Studies Review. Any errors are, of course, my own. Notes 1. Such as that found in Doran and Lee, 2002 Doran Stuart Lee David Australia and recognition of the People's Republic of China, 1949–1972 Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Canberra 2002 [Google Scholar]. 2. NAA: External Affairs; A1838, Correspondence files, multiple number series; 1500/1/4/17, Protocol: Diplomatic Representation in Australia – China – Dr Chen Tai Chi. 3. Australia Free China Association, Annual Report 1961/1962. AH: Waijiaobu; 172–8; 1055, Aozhou Ziyou Zhongguo Xiehui, August 1957–May 1964. 4. Kenneth Gee, QC, personal communication, 4 January 2006. 5. Australia Free China Association, Annual Report 1961/1962. AH: Waijiaobu; 172–8; 1055, Aozhou Ziyou Zhongguo Xiehui, August 1957–May 1964. 6. Typescript of Asian Tour, Jan–Mar 1955, p. 155. NLA: Papers of W.S. Kent Hughes, Box 14, Series 3, Folder 9. 7. Australia, House of Representatives, 1959. Debates, pp. 939–40. 8. Typescript of Asian Tour, Jan–Mar 1955, p. 155. NLA: Papers of W.S. Kent Hughes, Box 14, Series 3, Folder 9. 9. Details of the Nationalist position regarding an Australian embassy can be found in MOFAA: Waijiaobu; Aozhou huifu zai Tai zhu Hua shiguan; October 1957–November 1966. 10. Letter from Shen Chang-huan to Kent Hughes, 16 August 1958. NLA: Papers of W.S. Kent Hughes, Box 53, Series 14, Folder 4. 11. MOFAA: Waijiaobu; Aozhou huifu zai Tai zhu Hua shiguan; October 1957–November 1966. 12. Future research may go some way further in exploring the specific processes by which this group influenced policy under Holt. As Chao (1999 Chao, Ena. 1999. The China lobby (1947–1950) reconsidered. Sino-American Relations, 25(2): 37–56. [Google Scholar], p. 39) has noted for the American China lobby: “Little is still known about the inner workings of the China lobby and its actual impact on specific decisions”. The picture is similarly unclear for Australia's “Taiwan lobby”. 13. NAA: External Affairs; A1838, Correspondence files, multiple number series; 1500/2/62/1, Australian diplomatic representatives abroad – Taiwan – opening of mission; 1966–1966. 14. As well as helping to quell speculation about the move and make it appear the natural next, if belated, step in a long-running relationship, this focus on the act of “re-opening” or “re-activating” a latent institution (rather than opening a new one) also had practical aspects. In terms of protocol, the establishment of an entirely new mission would have required formal approval from Australia's head of state – the Queen – and hence would almost certainly have been scrutinised if not rejected outright by the British Foreign Office. “Re-activation” required no such approval. 15. In NAA: Cabinet Office; A4940, Menzies and Holt Ministries – Cabinet files “C” single number series; C4370, Australia/Taiwan relations – Creation of post of Australian Ambassador; 1966–1966. 16. Interestingly, the MOFAA files suggest that Booker confided to Chen Chi-mai in 1965 that he hoped that any future ambassadorship to Taipei would be his. Why Booker was, in the end, not chosen for the position is not known. 17. Former employee (A) of the Australian embassy in Taipei, personal communication, 30 October 2006. 18. Canberra to Australian mission to United Nations (NY), 6 October 1966. NAA: External Affairs; A1838, Correspondence files, multiple number series; 1500/2/62/1, Australian diplomatic representatives abroad – Taiwan – opening of mission; 1966–1966. What these promises were is unknown. 19. More permanent premises were eventually found in the Arcadia Building on Tun Hua South Road, while the ambassador's residence was on Yangmingshan. 20. NAA: External Affairs; A1838, Correspondence files, multiple number series; 519/1/9 PART1, Formosa – General – Political situation – Monthly reports from Australian embassy; 1967–1972. 21. This changed in later years. Dunn had trained in Chinese studies at Oxford, and was assisted by a number of Chinese-speaking Canberra-based staff. 22. Something that would be further strengthened following Australia's assumption of responsibility for “residual British interests” after the closure of the British consulate in early 1972. 23. Contact with the British consulate was not, in any case, as frequent as with the US embassy and the missions of other East Asian countries. Former employee (B) of the Australian embassy in Taipei, personal communication, 26 March 2007. 24. A New South Wales parliamentarian who later acted as a de facto consul for the Nationalists in Sydney. 25. The Institute of Pacific Research, established by Goddard at the newly-formed China Academy (now the Chinese Culture University), was certainly mentioned in reports compiled by embassy staff. 26. Former employee (A) of the Australian embassy in Taipei, personal communication, 30 October 2006. Another recurring, though minor, consular irritant was Taiwanese fishing boats operating in the waters of Papua and New Guinea – administered, at the time, by Australia; see NAA: External Affairs; A1838, Correspondence files, multiple number series; 519/3/1/7, Formosa – Guidance Notes for Embassy – Taipei; 1966–1975. 27. To date, this is the only occasion on which a serving Australian prime minister has visited Taiwan; yet it was only part of a wider 13-day trip Holt made through Asia. 28. Joint Communiqué issued by the Republic of China and the Commonwealth of Australia on April 6, 1967. MOFAA: Waijiaobu; Ao zongli Hete fang Hua [Visit of Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt to China]; 3 February 1967–4 April 1967. 29. Labor had campaigned on the need to recognise Beijing, and had made it clear that the embassy in Taipei would be closed as soon as possible after victory. 30. NAA: External Affairs; A1838, Correspondence files, multiple number series; 519/1/9 PART1, Formosa – General – Political situation – Monthly reports from Australian embassy; 1967–1972. 31. Kenneth Gee was apparently assured by Gough Whitlam that a Labor government would allow the Nationalists to retain a trade office in Australia even after diplomatic relations had been severed. This may have provided some cause for hope about a similar arrangement being made for the transformation of the embassy in Taipei into a trade commission. However, the Nationalists were expelled from Canberra following the Labor victory in December 1972, and plans for an Australian trade office in Taipei were shelved. Kenneth Gee, QC, personal communication, 4 January 2006. 32. Former employee (B) of the Australian embassy in Taipei, personal communication, 26 March 2007. 33. Indeed, the Australian government only appears to have agreed to British requests for the Australian embassy in Taipei to take responsibility for residual British interests “in the expectation that there would be no commercial or visa work for them to do” and that they would not be required to take on the British role of representing the interests of some other Commonwealth countries in Taiwan. ‘British interests in Taiwan’, 13 August 1971. NA: Foreign Office; 21, Far Eastern Department: Registered Files (F and FE Series); 867, Closure of Consulate of UK in Taiwan, 1 January 1971–31 December 1971. 34. This is not to suggest that the decision was necessarily viewed by the Australian (or Taiwanese) public as inevitable. Although such questions remain beyond the bounds of this paper, future research may go some way in examining the gap between official and public opinion on Australia's recognition of the People's Republic in 1972. 35. British Consulate in Tamsui to Anthony Eden, 16 February 1955. NA: Foreign Office; 371 Foreign Office: Political Departments: General Correspondence from 1906–1966; 115168, Visit to Formosa by Australian minister of interior and public works, Mr Kent Hughes, 1955

Economic history · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics · Asian American and Pacific Histories · History · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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