Carter tells private group of plan for full ties with China

Press, 15 June 1978, Page 9

Carter tells private group of plan for full ties with China

/ 1 Washington President Jimmy Carter and his advisers have told an elite private group they will press for full diplomatic relations with Peking based on three conditions safeguarding the future of Taiwan, United Press International has learned.

Administration sources said that Mr Carter and his aides made clear no deadline has been set for replacing the historic United StatesTaiwan relationship with full ties to Peking, but they have decided to speed up negotiations and to ask for specific concessions on the Taiwan issue. The sources said that the three conditions were outlined on Monday and at a Washington meeting of an influential private study group known as the Trilateral Commission. They were: That the United States insists United States trade and aid to the Nationalist Government of Taiwan — including military assistance — must continue after full diplomatic relations are established with China. That a United States trade

office would be established in Taiwan once the embassy was closed down. That China must make clear, through a formula yet to be agreed upon, that it would not use force in seeking to reunite Taiwan to the Chinese mainland. The sources said that Mr Carter, his Secretary of State (Mr Cyrus Vance), the Defence Secretary (Mr Harold Brown), and other top Administration officials all discussed the emerging United States-China policy in their addresses to the present confidential session of the Trilateral Commission. Proceedings of the commission — high-powered group of businessmen, scholars, and former Government leaders from the United States, Europe, and Japan — are off the record, but some

participants agreed to discuss with the United Press International the outlines of the Administration presentation.