China had apparently ditched its pro-Tokyo position to take a neutral stance in a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia over four Moscow-controlled islands off Hokkaido by 1992, according to Japanese diplomatic records declassified in December.
In response to then Japanese Foreign Minister Michio Watanabe's request to confirm China's stance of supporting Japan on the "Northern Territories" issue, then Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin said, "It would be less difficult to settle the issue bilaterally," the Foreign Ministry records showed.
The talks between Watanabe and top Chinese officials in January 1992 were held mainly to make arrangements for the Japanese emperor's visit to China.
Watanabe said then Russian President Boris Yeltsin had altered Moscow's stance to recognize the existence of the territorial issue, and referred to his own memory that then Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping had previously said he regarded the four islands as "Japanese territory," according to the records.
After Watanabe tried to confirm whether China's stance remained unchanged, then Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen, who was accompanying Jiang at the talks, said that many countries including China had opposed Russia's "authoritarian way" as a background at the time when Deng made those remarks, the records showed.
But while avoiding confirmation of Deng's remark, Jiang said China "would never play a negative role," suggesting Beijing would not act unfavorably toward Tokyo in the dispute.
Until then, Japan had believed that China's attitude remained unchanged on the issue of the islets, known as the Southern Kurils in Russia, after then Chinese leader Mao Zedong in 1964 expressed his view that the four disputed islands belonged to Japan.
Later that month, Watanabe told then U.S. President George H.W. Bush when he joined a summit between Bush and then Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa in Tokyo that China's view on the Japan-Russia territorial row had changed, according to the records.
Japan maintains its stance that the Soviet Union illegally seized the islands -- Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai islet group -- soon after Japan's surrender in World War II on Aug. 15, 1945. Russia claims the action was legitimate.
The long-standing territorial dispute has hampered progress in peace treaty talks between Japan and Russia.
Bilateral negotiations over the peace treaty have been suspended since Tokyo imposed economic sanctions on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Chinese President Xi Jinping told Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in April 2023 that China "does not take either side" regarding the territorial row, according to a Chinese source familiar with the matter.
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