Japan opposed sanctions against China after Tiananmen crackdown, declassified documents show

Our stance was not to isolate China, which was continuing with its policy of reform and openness," said Yuji Miyamoto, a former Japanese ambassador to China, 

Miyamoto is close to a high treason charge...

The CCP might have appreciated Japan's effort. But they soon forgot it. Beijing now grins.

I doubt any diplomatic statement would have altered anything inside China one way or the other.

The official Chinese government account said 319 died, including soldiers, and more than 7,000 were injured in the incident. But the figures are believed to be much higher.

Utterly spineless.

Japan has never been good or even adequate at diplomacy, this declass info is not ssurprising.

Japan can't get over its own human rights record.

Japan can't truly join an alliance based on value - again due to history.

Japan can't expresses its interests globally - because its companies have gone totally global and forgotten its roots.

Japan can't lead because it has such a large chip on its shoulder, from all of above.

IMHO, Abe 'knew' all this (the only PM in modern time that does), but he couldn't get enough support politically to complete the 'Modern Japan Project'. Recent example - he got cut off at the knees by Iran and his own corporates when the tanker was attacked, AND the shipping company contradicted actual evidence.

China knows all this too, and is exploiting it for it's worth.

Nowadays, many governments bow to China for economical reasons, but this (early) case is outstanding.

Thanks Japan. And now you wonder why China is this big mess now.

And China returns Japan's favor by trying to steal the Senkakus.

Sometime, Japan has spine to resist lies.

For the ignorant, a summary of the events in 1989 can be found in Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Tiananmen_Square_protests

"Records by the Tiananmen Mothers suggest that three students died in the Square the night of the army's push into the Square.[e]"

全方位外交 (omnidirectional diplomacy) at its best worst. That we had to wait thirty years demonstrates their reliance on secrecy and unwillingness to open questions of importance to public discussion.

Thatcher’s remarks about what this would mean for Hong Kong turned out to be prescient, years later.

Japan may claim to believe in freedom and democracy like the west does (did?), but actions tell a different story. I hope to see true advocates for freedom take the reins in Japan one day.

Akio Takahara, a professor of Chinese politics at the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, said the government believed helping to bring stability to China, which was still in the early stages of modernization, would be in Japan's national interest.

It is quite easy to look back and criticise our actions in the past particularly with Japan's decision to support China in its Tiananmen crackdown in 1989.

In case the US and the free world could turn back time to fix past errors of judgment in our modern time, I believe they first should contain the China genie when it was first released out of the bottle in 1972. Then, the US should never let China to invade and occupy Vietnam's Paracel Islands in 1974. By using Paracel islands as the springboard, China has aggressively expanded its territories in the Southeast Asia Sea in the recent years. Next, the US should never abandon its two allies, the South of Vietnam and the ROC (Republic of China, now is Taiwan)...

As for now, the US, Japan, India, Australia and the free world should join forces to stop China's aggressive expansions in the Southeast Asia Sea. Losing this sea to China is the herald of the end of the US's number one status and the beginning of nightmare for the world.