Hide Article Text (OCR)
Joseph AlsopNew Ping-Pong Diplomacy Needs Looking UnderneathBy JOSEPH AISOPWASHINGTON - In tbe past week or so, what Is called Piag-Pooe Diplomacy with Communist China has produced a sort of euphoric delirium. The only possible comment is to suggest that everyone ought to’ try to see the skull beocath the skin.As to the sldn, it Is very pleasant. The only rational U.S. posture has always been ccmplete readiness to enter Into relations with the Chinese Communists, the very moment' the Chinese Communists wanted to have relations with ) the United States. If all this Ping-Pong , ' means that rational and equal relations i are beginning to be possible, it b a large oel plus.As to the skull, it is very unpleasant, k In the Johnson and particularly In the 3 .Nixon administration, the U.S. posture toward China has always been the rational one, above outlined. It Is the Chinese who have changed posture; not the Americans. And the gut question is why they have done so.Frontier It Major AnswtrThe main part of the answer to that question is to be found on the Siao-Soviet frontier. After years of .laborious and costly military buildup, the Soviets now have in place on the frontier everythiog ^ that is needed for a surgical strike to emasculate China as a major power.The surgical strike, if it is ever attempted, would have to be nuclear. Its aim would be to destroy the Chinese nuclear capability. There is no doubt at all that in Moscow, China's approaching status as a serious, quite independent nuclear power Is regarded by many leaders as quite intolerable.The wisest American analysts agree that In 1969, when the buildup on the frontier was still incomplete, the Soviets came very close to attacking the Chinese Communists. Since then, the Soviets have . pulled back a bit politically, while continuing the military buildup. Sino-Soviet slate relations of a sort have been resumed.'Some Linden MilitantThat does not change the iron mle, ® however, that when active, costlyJ preparations are being made to doi something, important persons want to dowhatever is being prepared. There is clearly a powerful faction In the Soviet* government that favors making al preventive strike against China, nof matter what the international cost.like all great governments, theoSoviet government Is unlikely to make any very hard and painful decision — like this one about China — until a decision Is really unavoidable. The KomcGt when it will be “now or never! for the Soviets- will not come, Li fact, for about three years. .It will come fheo, because by that time the increase ot Chinese nuclear power will threaten to change the orders of risk for the Russians. Rather naturally, the Chinese therefore want to change the orders cf risk in another direction. And they want to do this before the time of “cow or never! in Moscow, by reentering the world community in a big way.China's Pact ChangedThat is the real skull beneath the skin—, the true underlying meaning of all this Ping-Pong Diplomacy, and the other Chinese moves cf the same sorL That does not exclude other meanings, as well, of course.* One such lies in the simple fact that Communist China Is now rapidly recovering from the paranoiac spasm of the “cultural revolution. Father Mao Tae-tung has retired into his worship-temple, as he did after the paranoiac spasm of his “great leap’ forward. Chou En-lai and the chief of staff of the array, Huang Yung-hseng, are the people who appear to be really in charge in Peking.Rational policy-making is therefore possible again. Rationality demanded an end of China's former isolation. Rationality further demands a Chinese seat in the Uoited Nations, plus as many foreign embassies in Peking as will go there.These are ends in themselves; but they will also serve the useful purpose of making the Soviets think a long time about if, when (hey must finally decide fcr or against doing wbat they have already prepared to do on the frontier. It will be an interesting gauge of Chinese apprehension about this future moment, when we see whether the Chinese Communists also want state relations with the United States.In simple justice, it should be added that President Nixon was mainly responsible for making the present change possible. Beginning with changes in the silly trade restrictions, he went cn to the big changes in passport regulations which produced the Ping* Pong tournament Wisely, Mr. Nixon will probably go as far as the Chinese choose (o go. - - .
Newspaper Details
Centralia Daily Chronicle
Centralia, Washington, US
Mon, Apr 26, 1971
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Joshua N.
SG 23 May 2017
Other Publications Near Centralia, Washington
Centralia Daily Chronicle Examiner
Centralia Daily Chronicle
Centralia News Examiner
Centralia Weekly Chronicle
Centralia Chronicle Advertiser
