U.S. Rejects Chinese Call For Pact

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29273, 3 August 1960, Page 13

U.S. Rejects Chinese Call For Pact

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 1030 p.m.) WASHINGTON, August 1. The State Department today rejected as “meaningless propaganda” a suggestion by the Chinese Prime Minister, Mr Chou En-lai, for a peace pact, including the United States, setting up a zone free of nuclear weapons in Asia and the Western Pacific.

In a prepared comment on Mr Chou’s proposal, the department said it seemed to be the same one “which has been made on a number of. occasions by the Chinese Communist leaders during a period which has been marked by extreme Communist Chinese belligerence.”

It listed examples of belligerence as “aggression in the Formosa Strait, the savage repression of Tibet, and the persistent anti-American propaganda.” It referred to a channel of communication which it said existed between Communist China and the United States in Warsaw, where ambassadorial contacts take place. The statement added: “To date, there has been no basis whatever in these ambassadorial talks with the Chinese Communists for the hope that Peking will abandon its belligerence. “We have been trying for five yeafs to get the Chinese Communists to take the first step in this direction, to agree to the renunciation of the use of force in the Formosa area. “From these facts it would seem apparent that this latest proposal is only another meaningless propaganda gesture on the part of the Chinese Communists.” Mr Chou’s Speech Mr Chou made the proposal during a surprise visit to the Swiss Embassy’s national day garden party. Diplomats said his speech was one of the mildest heard from Chinese leaders in recent years. Mr Chou said peaceful coexistence and good relations between China and Switzerland were “a good example to all the world.”

“Today there are in the world military blocs such as the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation which are hortile to China and trying to encircle our country and pose a threat to it. But we stand for peaceful co-existence,” he said.

“We have proposed the conclusion of a peace pact for a nonnuclear zone in Asia and the Western Pacific.” Mr Chou added: “This, of course, would include the United States. This is a long-standing

effort- on our part, but we must persist in our efforts.” He said: “Some provocateurs have accused China of having given up the policy of seeking peaceful relations with countries with differing social systems. These are slanders and not at all correct.”

Mr Chou first proposed an allAsian collective peace pact in July, 1954. He made a similar proposal at the Afro-Asian conference at Bandoeng, Indonesia, in April, 1955, and in July that year expanded his original proposal to include the United States. On August 18, 1955, the New China news agency reported that Mr Chou had called for a conference of all Pacific nations—including the United States, Australia, and New Zealand—to discuss an Asian collective peace pact.