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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Feb. 19, 1964
Red China
The reason for France's recognition of Red China is very simple—to seek ties with Peking and to gain political prestige and influence in Asia.
President Charles de Gaulle's move to recognize the Chinese Communists came as a big blow to the Western world. His action was not welcomed by many of the anti-Communist nations.
The U.S. called the decision "unwise and untimely," and declared it a hindrance to the Western world's efforts for closer Atlantic cooperation.
President Philibert Tsiranana of Madagascar, a close friend of the president, said: "For once, I will not follow General de Gaulle." His statement represented the opinion of eight of 14 former French colonies in Africa.
West German diplomats opposed the action and named it French propaganda to gain Western leadership.
Nationalist China, which opposed the French version of two Chinas, severed its diplomatic ties with France and prepared herself to meet the consequences.
Communist China was not ready to accept France's recognition, and did not want to recognize France unless the French cut all relations with Naturalist China. This was expected, since Red China does not believe in having diplomats of any nation in both Peking and Taipei.
Peking no doubt welcomed recognition as another useful wedge driven between the NATO allies, and also as a means of increasing smallnation support for its admission to the UN.
France is not the first NATO member to seek ties with Peking. Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands already have diplomatic relations with Red China. But France went a step further in recognizing Communist China to influence cold-war politics.
President de Gaulle gave some reasons for France's recognition of the second China: the
fact that the Chinese communist government has been strong and effective for more than 15 years, the impossibility of neglecting the world's largest populated region, and the impossibility of neutralizing Southeast Asia without consent from the Communist China.
But these are not the only reasons.
De Gaulle hopes to restore France's sagging market in the Far East. His efforts have grown in seeking a market for France's steadily increasing industrial products, especially capital goods, in Red China.
Also, De Gaulle wants to reassert France's independence in foreign affairs, and desires to make her voice heard in the Far East. He wishes to dominate Western Europe by carrying the East with him, and also wants to be a policy maker in world affairs.
Whatever his reasons may be, the effect is going to be considerable on France, Red China, and on the world. French recognition may lead to recognition by a number of other countries, especially in Africa. It may start a chain reaction in many Asian and African nations which have so far remained aloof in the whole issue.
Perhaps this chain action will alter the international scene and assure China of the two-thirds majority necessary for admission to the UN.
Whether President de Gaulle's move is timely or not is a question, but it is certain that the recognition will reduce China's isolation and will bring about identification with a trend that is irresistible. If other Western nations, especially the U.S., recognize the Peking government, the recognition will burden the Red government with additional commitments; and thereby it will serve as a great contribution to world peace.
Recognition, the establishment of diplomatic relations, and the admission of Red China to the UN may be the only solution to the problems of Southeast Asia.
—Vinay Kothari
Editor:
Complacent KU
The People Say . . .
Just before final week an editorial by Tom Coffman appeared in encouragement to sororities, soon to enter formal rush, to take action in the civil rights movement by pledging a Negro girl. No Negro girl was pledged by any white sorority during this period. After rush was completed there appeared another editorial, again by Mr. Coffman, this time in comment upon the general failure of the sororites to take advantage of their opportunity to advance interracial sisterhood.
Dead silence has responded to Mr. Coffman's second editorial as inaction did to his first. It would seem that the KU student body is wholeheartedly in support of unconcern, disinterest, and non-activity in the area of civil rights: the sorority members have, predictably, acted just as their fellow citizens wished.
Perhaps criticism should here be leveled at Mr. Coffman for bucking the tide and for moving ahead of his time. One can hardly call down judgment upon the sororities for failing to act where the 11,000 students at the University of Kansas
prefer that they not: one can only bemoan the fact that Mr. Coffman is thinking in terms of general fraternity and opportunity rather than resting calmly within the community of apathy so actively inactive in which he lives and moves.
It is to be regretted, of course, that the girls in Miller Hall felt the need to protest Plaza Club discrimination against some of their members, but as long as the great mass of KU students squat firmly on their right to forbid others their rights, no great upheaval should occur. And after all, that particular protest was directed toward off-campus discrimination.
We can all be hopeful that Mr. Coffman will see the error of his ways in attempting to persuade the clear-thinking sororities that they had a responsibility in this contro-
"Remember When There Used To Be Faraway Places?"
1904 HERBLOCK
THE WASHINGTON POST
(Continued on page 3)
In 1922, KU students decided to observe a Health Week on campus each year.
from the morgue
The main objects of Health Week were:
First, to give students a perspective of the great importance of the health movement; second, to give some impression of the importance of health habits to students; and third, to orient students so that they may participate intelligently in the health programs.
Charts of Athletic Associations were distributed to organized houses during the week.
At the end of the week, each chart was graded by health officers, and the group with the highest grade was given a prize.
(In tomorrow's UDK a short history of health movements over the world, as outlined by Dr. Noble P. Sherwood, KU's health chairman in 1927...'KJ)
Break with Russians Opens China to West
"In order to understand China," said Chou En-lai, "you must keep in mind that it used to be a colonial country." The Chinese Communist premier had just told the private Belgian business group with which I visited Peking last summer that he would not comment on the Sino-Soviet split during our interview. But it was clear to all of us that his remark about Chinese resentment of imperialistic interference was in fact a very explicit comment on the dispute with Moscow. For everywhere we went it was apparent that the paternalism of the Soviets annoyed the Chinese as much as European domination had in its day.
Press and diplomatic reports tend to emphasize dogmatic truculence as the force that isolates China from the rest of the world, including Moscow. Seen from inside China, however, the desire to break free of the isolation produced by dependence on the Soviets—foreigners, even though Communist foreigners—seems to be bringing about a distinctly undogmatic "opening to the West."
Aside from the importation of wheat (mainly from Canada and Australia), China still does the bulk of its business with Russia. But whereas in 1959 the total trade turnover with the Soviet Union amounted to $2 billion, in 1962 the total was only $675 million, and the value of Chinese exports to the Soviet Union was more than twice that of the imports. This balance may show China's eagerness to pay off the Soviets and be free of obligations toward them. The only Communist-bloc country with which trade increased in 1963 was Romania. The Sino-Romanian treaty stipulates a ten per cent increase in trade and is based on China's need for Romanian oil rather than on political motives.
ACCORDING TO the Chinese, 1.390 technical experts were withdrawn after Soviet aid ended in 1960. But other foreigners are replacing them, mainly Europeans and Japanese. Among the Europeans the British predominate (English is replacing Russian in China's universities); British trade delegations arrive in Peking almost weekly. A few British industrialists published a pamphlet that voiced a hope of bringing the trade of the two countries to the $200-million mark by 1968. Current contracts call for delivery of special steels, machinery, and aircraft. In October a $9-million deal was signed for a British synthetic-fertilizer plant, the first complete factory sold to China by Britain. Already one sees as many British as Soviet cars in Canton and other cities. Three British trade fairs, plus fairs or trade missions from France, Italy, and Belgium (unofficial), are projected this year. The Netherlands and Italy are sending in three chemical plants, Italy has sold petroleum-refinery equipment, Austria is dickering for sale of a steel plant, and West Germany does a brisk business in cars and grain-a total trade of about $200 million.
If Britain has played the most important role in expanding China's economic relations with the West, France has produced the most profound changes in the political sphere. Certainly Premier Chou En-lai had the question of French recognition in view all through his two-months-long African tour this winter. Two more African states, Burundi and the former French colony of Tunisia, agreed to recognize Peking, raising the total to 15 out of 36. If more of the former French colonies follow, the Chinese Communists' chances of being admitted to the United Nations will certainly improve. Aside from negotiations to import oil from Algeria and phosphates and locally assembled European trucks from Morocco, Chou was also seeking outlets in North Africa for products that China cannot hope to sell on the European market. Such sales would provide French francs for industrial materials that China badly needs. Payment has been the biggest problem in the expansion of China's trade with France; thus, working out ways of earning francs in North Africa is a matter of the greatest importance to Peking.
IN ASIA, the Japanese government is officially committed to an expansion of trade with Communist China, and in time may be expected to follow the French initiative in recognizing Peking. Last May Japan authorized sales to China on the basis of deferred payment. Several synthetic-textiles plants have already been sold to China, and a commercial fair representing 600 Japanese companies was held in Peking and Shanghai late in 1963.
Even the weather is facilitating the Chinese determination to be treated no longer like "overgrown children"—as one Russian I met described them. The 1963 grain crop was good, though not outstanding; the cotton crop was excellent. Thanks to this double success in agriculture. China can reduce hard-currency grain imports and increase textile exports.
The expansion and diversification of foreign trade may not portend any change of heart among the Communist Chinese leaders on questions of Marxist dogma. But then, as Premier Chou indicated quite clearly when I saw him last summer, the desire to be free of foreign domination, even by an ally, runs deeper than ideological abstractions in China.
Charles Ferdinand Nothomb, The Reporter, February 13
Dailij Hänsan
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