Taiwan: No Peking promise not to invade

Press, 20 December 1978, Page 8

Taiwan: No Peking promise not to invade

NZPA-Reuter Washington 1 United States State De- j partment officials have i acknowledged that they re-1 ceived no explicit assurances! from Peking on Taiwan's se-l curity before the United' States Administration decided to normalise relations with mainland China. Mr Richard Holbrooke, Assistant Secretary of State for the Far East, yesterday said the issue had not even been raised by the United States in negotiations with Peking in the last few months. The “realities” were such, Mr Holbrooke said, that Peking was concerned not with a military take over of Taiwan but with the millions of Soviet troops massed on China’s northern border.

A senior Defence Department official told reporters that his department’s view also was that Peking’s chief military concern was its border with Russia. The official, who asked not to be identified, also said the United States had received no assurances that Peking would not attack Taiwan. He added that China understood that Washington expected peace to continue in that area. Other United States officials, confirming that Taiwan’s security had never been explicitly raised in negotiations, hinted that the Carter Administration might accelerate the delivery of “selective defensive weapons” to Taiwan before the break in relations on January 1. These officials also emphasised that the Administration intended to keep in force all agreements with Taiwan except the 1955 mutual security treaty. China indicated yesterday that it was willing to establish trade and economic relations with Taiwan. The official Hsinhua News Agency, quoted the Chinese Trade Minister (Mr Li Chiang) as saying at a news conference in Hong Kong: “Taiwan is part of China, why can’t there be trading

relations between Taiwan 'and the mainland?”

Mr Li was also quoted as saying: “So long as the conditions are appropriate, we can consider accepting government - to - government loans. Both got ernment-to-government and non-govern-ment loans can be accepted. ’

This was the first clear statement of an historic reversal in a principle laid down by the late Chairman Mao tse-tung. but been abandoned by the new moderate leadership, headed by the Senior Vice-Premier (Mr Teng Hsiao-ping). Mr Li told the reporters that the normalisation of United States-China relations on January 1 would make a difference in trade between the two countries. China gave priority to countries with which it had formal ties.

Nationalist China s President (Mr Chiang Ching-kuo) on Monday emphatically rejected an appeal from former Nationalist leaders who had defected to Peking to be invited to go to Taipei to negotiate the return of the island to the mainland.

The 68-year-old President, speaking at a meeting of the Nationalist Party, said the United States had “ushered a wolf into its living room. This is certainly an unwise, horrible move.”

Speaking with bitterness, he added: "America has never severed its relations with a friendly country. Now it has done that to the Republic of China (Taiwan). Shame on the United States.”

The meeting was told that Taiwan, which with 500,000 troops has one of Asia's largest armies, had decided to increase military expenditure — “so that we can establish a self-sustaining defence industry.” Press attacks on the United States decision continued in Taiwan yesterday, but anti-American violence and protests appeared to have run their course. The United States Embassy and other organisations reopened in an atmosphere of returning normality.