Tokyo secretly asked Beijing not to make territorial claims to the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea to avoid friction ahead of the Japanese emperor's visit to China in 1992, according to to Japanese diplomatic documents declassified on Dec. 20
Japan found itself in the enviable position of being among the first nations to learn that Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had survived a failed attempt by Communist hard-liners in 1991 before it collapsed under the weight of his reform programs.
Talks between U.S. and Japanese leaders in 1990 following the Tiananmen Square crackdown show that even 30 years ago Western nations were concerned with China’s human rights problems, according to recently declassified documents.