The China Card

THE NEW YEAR brought the resolution of one of the most difficult of foreign policy dilemmas that has faced the United States since World War II--the establishment of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. The recognition of the most populous country in the world is none too soon in coming. Carter's decision, bringing seven years of negotiations to fruition, is a much-needed step to resolve the confusion and haphazardness that has characterized America's China policy for the last 30 years.

Conservatives such as Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ar.) have accused Carter of treacherously betraying our faithful allies on Taiwan, that "bastion of freedom and democracy." But American perspectives of the China situation have changed. In 1949, for example, Time Magazine named Chiang Kai-shek, the founder of the Nationalist regime, as its Man of the Year; this year, Time so honored PRC Vice-Premier Teng Hsiaoping. Just as we did not 'lose' China to the Chinese Communist Party in 1949, we are not 'abandoning' Taiwan in 1979. In addition, as America has learned, interfering in the internal disputes of Asian nations rarely rebounds to our advantage.

Carter has stressed the United States' commitment to retaining strong cultural, economic and educational ties with the Republic of China. Moreover, there is no indication, as Teng has reiterated, that China will employ military force to reunite what it has traditionally viewed as a single nation. As one American sinologist has wryly observed: ultimately the United States always retains its right to defend any province of China that is entirely surrounded by water.

AMERICANS, however, must exercise cautious optimism in evaluating the benefits of expanding contacts with China. While some analysts argue that the decision was primarily economically motivated, businessmen must not develop overinflated views of the China market. China is still a poor and underdeveloped nation and while scientific and technological exchange opportunities will no doubt expand, there are few indications that she will enter the world markets on a scale that some overeager investors envision.

The most immediate benefits of our new relationship with the PRC may be a stabilization of the global balance of power. While some will argue that Carter has played the China "trump card" too early in the game, improved communication with Asia's greatest power can only ease the tension in the delicate game of superpower diplomacy. The United States can only gain by maintaining "detente" with both Russia and China.

Improved relations with China open new opportunities for policy-makers as well. American Asian policy for the last 30 years--highlighted by two wars--has been marked by diplomacy ignorantly conceived and irrationally executed. Without communication with the dominant nation in the region or an understanding of the cultural background of the nations with whom we wished to deal, our policy has failed to be consistent. If our goal is to achieve competent foreign policy--grounded in the realities of the Asian situation and rationally carried out--then normalization with China is essential.

CHINA HAS NEVER been an easy nation for Americans to understand. One can only hope that Americans will seek to correct our mistaken visions of the past and that a new era is genuinely in the offing.