Slow Boat to Recognition

By dint of much huffing and puffing, the United States has blown itself into a ridiculous China policy. Although to Communist Party is the Chinese government, the U.S. cannot recognize that fact at the present moment.

When the "People's Republic of China" first began to govern, the U.S. government proinptly announced--to the vociferous applause of its Congressional critics--that the Communist government was bad and that this country could not recognize it. The Chinese must have seen in this rejection a fundamental hostility, which, along with the refusal to admit them to U.N. membership, may have been one of the factors that led to their intervention in the Korean war. When the Communist "volunteers" poured into South Korea, administration spokesman and Republican leaders displayed an "I told you so" attitude.

As long as negotiations on the field continue, this situation is frozen. The U.S. government announced that as long as field commanders are arranging a truce, this country will not permit discussion of the recognition question. The State Department cannot back down on this statement without impairing the confidence of America's allies and enemies in its word.

But when the cease-fire negotiations have been completed and the many other issues raised by the Korean war settled, the United States should revise its stand on the basis of the issue's merits. First there is only one reasonable criterion for de facto recognition, and that is whether the government in question really governs. Second, the Communists constitute the real governors of China, and presumably will continue in that capacity for some time.

In more peaceful times, non-recognition would not only be illogical, but it would restrict American diplomacy to one policy--that of hostility. If the United States should wish to adopt a less implacable attitude toward China, the hostility inherent in non-recognition would stand out in contradiction.

The fact that the Communists control China is indeed unpleasant, but it is no excuse for following an illogical and self-restricting policy.