U.S. Urged To Recognise China

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31005, 10 March 1966, Page 17

U.S. Urged To Recognise China

(N.Z.P A.-Reuter —Copyright) WASHINGTON, March 9. The United States was yesterday urged to change its over-all policy towards China and acknowledge that the Peking regime was the de facto government of the mainland. An expert on Chinese affairs. Professor A. Doak Barnett, of Columbia University, called for this when he appeared before the Senate foreign relations committee, which is investigating United States relations with Peking. Professor Barnett, who was born in Shanghai and lived in China until 1936, was with the State Department. A newspaperman in China and South-east Asia in the late 19405, he is now a professor of government and acting director of Columbia University’s East Asian Institute. As Senator Fulbright noted in a Senate speech on Monday: “Some of the most knowledgeable old China hands were driven out of the State Department by the McCarthy investigations and there are now few if any well-known

and influential sinologists at the highest level of government comparable to such Soviet experts as George Kennan and Llewellyn Thompson.” Policy "Unwise”

Professor Barnett urged the United States to adopt a policy aiined at the military containment of China, but not at its isolation in international political affairs.

In his view the United States policy of isolating China was unwise and had been unsuccessful. “It cannot, I believe, provide a basis for a sound longterm policy that aims not only at containing and restraining Chinese power, but also at reducing tensions, exerting a moderating influence on Peking. ..." Professor Barnett said that while continuing to fulfil the pledge to defend Formosa against attack, America should clearly and explicitly acknowledge the Communist regime as the de facto government of the Chinese mainland. The United States should “state our desire to extend de jure recognition and exchange diplomatic representatives with Peking if and when it indicates that it would be prepared to reciprocate.” Professor Barnett urged that the United States open trade contacts with China, and accept a formula which would seat both Peking and Formosa in the United Nations General Assembly.

He predicted that existing differences on policy among the Chinese leadership would increase in future, particularly after the death of chair-

man Maa. Tse-tung. He described the groups that might come into conflict as “the technical bureaucrats" and “the specialists in power politics and ideology.” The former were likely to promote relatively moderate policies, and it would be in the interest of the West if they came out on top.