Fairbank Explains His Stand

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Current news reports would indicate that Russia may have inspired the Chinese Communist arrest of our Mukden Consul, Mr. Angus Ward, which of course makes any recognition of the Poking regime by us at the moment impossible. To those Chinese Communists who want to have continued relations with the United States, this arrest may have seemed like a smart form of pressure; but of course we will never yield to it. For the Russians, it is a convenient way of keeping China out of contact with us. This Russian angle should be carefully noted.

Russia plainly hopes by degrees to wipe out our position in China. Yet this cannot be done overnight. It is by no means certain that the Chinese Communists want to subordinate themselves to Russia or that they wish to eliminate American contact, or that, if they do, they can succeed soon. No matter what the Chinese Communists want, China is still oriented toward the West in many ways commercial, educational, cultural.

Therefore, we should not fall into a Communist trap and refuse indefinitely any diplomatic recognition of Communist China. Eventual recognition (which does not mean moral approval) will be an essential step in any effort to support the American position in China. To withhold recognition, beyond the time when our State Department is able to work it out, would be to sell out our business firms trading with China, to desert the 1500 American missionaries still in the field, to surrender a century's investment of good will, and so play into Russia's hands. John K. Fairbank   Professor of History