In 1993, then-Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa expressed his skepticism about China’s democratization in a summit with then-U.S. President Bill Clinton, according to Japanese diplomatic documents declassified by the Foreign Ministry Thursday.
He expressed this view when Clinton asked him about the future of China in their meeting in Washington on April 16, 1993, according to the documents.
Miyazawa also called on the U.S. government to continue to accord most-favored-nation trade status to China.