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In fact, the Chinese Premier seemed downright playful at first. "I presume you never take a nap," he said. Reagan explained that, well, he did not nap easily. "You look very energetic at your age," remarked Zhao, 65. "People here say you look much younger than your age." Reagan, 73, born during the last year of China's dynastic rule, grinned broadly. "As far as I'm concerned," he said, "this meeting has already been a success."
Next morning before their long talk, Deng, the top leader, kidded the American some more. He took Nancy's hand. "I hope you'll come [alone] next time and leave the President," Deng said. "We won't maltreat you." She giggled, and Reagan chimed in, "It sounds like I'm the one being maltreated."
But the public platitudes and happy banter inevitably gave way to tougher discussions, particularly with Zhao and Deng (who used his spittoon just once while meeting with Reagan), that touched on areas where the Chinese are disapproving, most notably CIA mining of Nicaraguan harbors and U.S. refusal to deal directly with the P.L.O. The talks focused on fundamental policy areas:
Taiwan. The status of the island, which Peking claims is its province, has been the most contentious issue between the U.S. and China for 35 years, and will likely remain so. However, now that Reagan has acknowledged Peking's primacy, and no longer calls Taiwan the Republic of China, the diplomatic wrangling is mainly over matters of nuance. Before he left Washington, Reagan assured the Taipei regime that he would not abridge the Taiwan Relations Act, passed after diplomatic ties were severed. The U.S. had agreed to reduce weapons sales to Taiwan under the act, yet in the last fiscal year such sales increased 35%, to $783 million, before falling back to about $735 million. "We welcome the repeated promises of the U.S. Government leaders," said Zhao at a banquet for Reagan, to "strictly pursue a one-China policy. We expect these promises to be faithfully carried out in action." In private he told Reagan his government wants a "considerable" reduction in arms sales to Taipei. Deng mentioned Taiwan to Reagan in private, but gingerly, describing it as "a knot in our relationship that we have to untie."
The Soviet Union. Fifty-two Soviet army divisions sit along China's northern frontier. China shares with the U.S. a mistrust of Moscow's international designs, but its leaders bridle when U.S. strategy seems to regard them primarily as a strategic foil to the Soviets. Indeed, last week Moscow announced that First Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Arkhipov will make an official trip to China in mid-May; he will be the highest-ranking Kremlin visitor since the early 1960s. Moreover, Peking is seeking to become the Middle Kingdom in modern geopolitical terms, a genuinely nonaligned state.