Toward Recognition

POLICIES & PRINCIPLES

The U.S. State Department wants to recognize the Chinese Communists. It would like to do so in concert with the British, who hope that by establishing "normal" relations with Red China they can safeguard Hong Kong, along with their other colonial and commercial interests in the Far East. But, unexpectedly, Secretary of State Dean Acheson has run into stiff opposition from President Truman.

Harry Truman has decided, somewhat belatedly, that he doesn't like the Chinese Communists. The President expressed his views recently when Acheson suggested that U.S. warships join British warships in breaking the Chinese Nationalist blockade of Communist ports, which interferes with Western trade. Said the President: let the Nationalists first see if they can make their blockade stick. Furthermore, let the Communists prove they can control China or gain the support of the Chinese people.

The State Department now expects the British, with India and Australia in tow, to recognize the Chinese Communists before year's end. The British suggested that they would consider withholding recognition only if the U.S. promised to help them defend Hong Kong against a possible Communist attack; the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff have come out flatly against such a U.S. commitment.

The State Department, which hopes eventually to bring the President around to its view, makes the following case for recognition:

The Chinese Communists are entering a long period of stress. They must cope with vast economic and technological problems, with provincial and local dissidents. If the U.S. recognizes the Red regime, it could maintain consular posts to observe the difficulties and possibly encourage opposition. Also, the presence of U.S. diplomats would tend to "inhibit" Russian moves to strengthen the Russian grip on China.

So far, the Chinese Reds have shown themselves utterly uninhibited by the presence of U.S. diplomats. But State hopes that once formal diplomatic relations are established, the Reds will have to treat U.S. representatives with a little more respect. At present some U.S. representatives, far from getting useful reports on Red China's difficulties back to the policymakers in Washington, are not even in a position to write a letter home (see below).

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