Wikileaks: US attitude to Diaoyu Islands
- By Wang Mengru
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E-mail China.org.cn, April 12, 2013
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[Photo/Sina] |
WikiLeaks published on Monday more than 1.7 million U.S. diplomatic and intelligence documents from the 1970s, CCTV reports.
The new records, dating from the beginning of 1973 to the end of 1976, showed that the U.S. has never recognized Japan's claim of "sovereignty" over the Diaoyu Islands.
During U.S. Senate deliberations in October 1971 on whether to consent to the ratification of the "Okinawa Reversion Treaty," the U.S. State Department asserted that the United States took a neutral position on the competing claims of Japan and China over the islands, "despite the return of the islands to Japanese administration."
On one hand, the U.S. Senate specifies that the Article V of Japan-U.S. Security Treaty is applicable to the Diaoyu Islands issue. On the other hand, the U.S. won't take sides over Diaoyu Islands dispute.
These two files can prove the U.S. attitude relating to the Diaoyu Islands. First, in one telegram on Feb. 5, 1974, U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger replied specifically on the U.S. position regarding the Diaoyu Islands. He explained that the U.S. Senate supported the Embassy of the United States in Japan to avoid involving issues on the Xisha Islands and the Diaoyu Islands.
In addition, in a separate telegram on April 3, 1975, the U.S. Department of State replied to the Embassy of the United States in Japan regarding the issue of U.S. Gulf Oil planning to drill in the sea around the Diaoyu Islands. The telegram said that the U.S. government was strongly against it. The U.S. opined that the sovereignty of Diaoyu Islands was in dispute, and disagreed with the assertion that the Diaoyu Islands belonged to Japan.
