Pioneers of Sino-Japanese Relations: Liao and Takasaki

Half a century ago, China and Japan signed the Memorandum Concerning Sino-Japanese Long-Term Comprehensive Trade. This accord is generally referred to as the LT Trade Agreement, an acronym for the co-signers: Liao Chengzhi (1908-1983), vice minister of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Chinese State Council, and Takasaki Tatsunosuke (1885-1964), former minister of the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Liao and Takasaki worked out this landmark for Sino-Japanese relations in the face of Chinese radical ideologues and of the conservative Japanese government, ruled by the Liberal Democratic Party, an ally of the United States. The results changed history: the LT Trade framework not only institutionalized Sino-Japanese economic relations, but also paved the way for their diplomatic normalization. In this dual biography of two great politicians, Mayumi Itoh analyzes what they accomplished together and their effects on international relations from fifty years ago to today.