Kissinger's Deal With Peking

EXACTLY one year after President Nixon's historic flight to China, Peking and Washington announced another major breakthrough in relations between the two long-estranged powers. As a result of Presidential Aide Henry Kissinger's fifth visit to Peking, the two nations will set up "liaison offices" in each other's capitals. Except for "strictly formal" diplomatic duties, Kissinger said, these "cover the whole gamut of relationships." In effect, they fall only a technicality or two short of representing full diplomatic recognition.

That was more of an advance than the Administration had expected when Kissinger set out on his tour, which included talks with Communist leaders in Hanoi, conversations with Premier Chou En-lai and Chairman Mao Tse-tung in Peking, and a meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka in Tokyo. Delighted by what he called the decision "to accelerate the normalization of relations" between the U.S. and China, Kissinger said the U.S. representative to Peking will be named within a month. Although he will not have the rank of ambassador, Kissinger indicated that the importance Washington places on the post will be revealed by the type of man chosen. Perhaps the most likely prospect is Alfred Le S. Jenkins, the State Department's leading China expert, and a companion of Kissinger's on his visits to Peking.

A joint communique, which said that the Peking talks were held in "an unconstrained atmosphere and were earnest, frank and constructive," promised an expansion of trade as well as "scientific, cultural and other exchanges." The exchanges will include imminent visits to China by the Philadelphia Orchestra and U.S. Congressmen, while Chinese gymnasts, an archaeology exhibit and a delegation of nuclear physicists will come to the U.S. Kissinger revealed that there also will be attempts to resolve long-standing commercial disputes resulting from the Communist seizure of power. The Chinese are seeking the release of about $80 million in assets in the U.S., which were frozen by Washington at that time. American businesses and citizens are seeking compensation of some $200 million in property taken over by the Communists.

Friend. The Chinese leaders agreed to release two U.S. pilots shot down over China after straying across the border on bombing raids in North Viet Nam. They are Major Philip Smith of Roodhouse, III., a prisoner since 1965, and Lieut. Commander Robert Flynn of Houston, Minn., who was captured in 1967. The Chinese agreed to review the life sentence of John T. Downey, an acknowledged CIA agent who has been in a Chinese prison for 21 years. His release is expected late this year.

Although Kissinger would not reveal the substance of his talks with Mao, he is known to have pressed for China's cooperation in helping to get Hanoi to respect the peace agreement in Viet Nam, as well as to work for the end of hostilities throughout Indochina. TIME'S Diplomatic Editor Jerrold L. Schecter, who was in Peking at the same time as Kissinger, cabled: "The immediate results of the visit will become apparent at the Paris conference on Viet Nam next week. The expectation among the Chinese is that the conference will go smoothly, take only a short time, and agree to support the peace settlement worked out between the U.S. and North Viet Nam. The Chinese leaders greeted Kissinger as an old friend, and his meeting with Mao, given surprising play on China's TV seemed to seal the astonishing accommodation of China to a onetime capitalist foe."

No formal commitment on the removal of some 9,000 American troops on Taiwan was made, but the U.S. is expected to reduce this number sharply. The Chinese reportedly hinted to Kissinger that they do not really want the U.S. to pull out of Asia completely, since that might open avenues that the Russians could exploit. China's willingness to grow closer to the U.S., it was clear, rests on its continuing fear of the Soviet Union. Once again, Kissinger appears to have shown his skill in continuing his high-stakes diplomacy among three wary powers.

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