18 January 2021

Recognising China. How it was done.

It is almost 50 years since Australia and China agreed to enter into diplomatic relations. The path to agreement had its complications and soon after I retired from DFAT I set about refreshing my memory and that of others involved at the time. The result of this research was published in Quadrant in March 1998 and is repeated here without change (though many named here have since died). It offers an inside view of what took place.