On the road in China, Reagan hears about opportunities and obstacles
Philosophically, it had been a long march indeed for Ronald Reagan. Just five years ago, when full diplomatic relations were established with China and cut with Taiwan, Candidate Reagan sputtered angrily. He said he had just watched Washington "cold-bloodedly betray a friend for political expediency. The memory will not go away." Maybe not, but it has obviously faded some. Reagan's frothy six days in the country that he used to call "Red China," is his presidency's most important foreign trip by far. Speaking in the Great Hall of the People in Peking, he alluded to Richard Nixon's epochal China trip twelve years ago. "I believe history beckons again," he said. "We have begun to write a new chapter for peace and progress in our histories, with America and China going forward hand in hand."
Reagan was interrupted by applause seven times in his 20-minute speech, and generously toasted wherever he went during the visit. Yet he discovered that Sino-American diplomacy can still be a very tricky affair. When China's government television system broadcast the President's Great Hall speech, 17 passages were judged provocative and excised (see box). To be sure, the speech also demonstrated that while the President has largely reversed himself on China, his conservative rhetoric has lost none of its crackle. He called the Soviet Union "wanton" and "brutal," and ascribed America's success to liberty and godliness. Although the President and his party made light of Chinese TV's bowdlerization of the speech (said Reagan to reporters: "You fellows do it all the time"), the Americans were sore over the incident.
If neither side fully understands the other, the Reagan visit certified that U.S.Chinese relations have passed through the first surge of enthusiasm, with its high hopes of vast strategic cooperation, toward a mature stage marked by a sense of continuity and prudent limits. Just two years ago relations had deteriorated badly. The Reagan Administration's early policy toward China, says a conservative Carter Administration policymaker, "was one of neglect, ignorance and insensitivity." Whatever problems may lie ahead, that benightedness now is gone.
Last weekend's display of good will was more than just a matter of pomp and pandas. Reagan met for serious talks with each of China's current leaders: de facto Ruler Deng Xiaoping, Premier Zhao Ziyang, Party Leader Hu Yaobang and President Li Xiannian. The Chinese mentioned Taiwan again and again, but in measured tones; ultimatums were not delivered. Deng, while forswearing any explicit alliance with Washington, made it clear over the course of his 2½ hours with Reagan on Saturday that he shares the American President's fundamental distrust of the Soviets. Several trade agreements were firmed up.
Despite awkward moments here and there, the trip worked. Even the stern People's Daily ran extraordinarily puffy coverage of Reagan day after day, and the 30-minute Chinese TV news devoted up to ten minutes a night to the capitalist leader. "We have a self-satisfied glow," said a usually stiff-necked White House adviser. "We're walking around with smiles on our faces."