Move to crack ‘bamboo curtain’

WASHINGTON: The Kennedy administration is planning a new move to crack the bamboo curtain between the United States and communist China, it was learnt here yesterday. An offer of reciprocal visits by American and Chinese newsmen with no political strings attached is being prepared by the State Department. It may be ready by Tuesday when the Kennedy administration holds its first conference meeting with the Chinese at Warsaw. At the same time, the US government will begin what may become an extensive probing of Peking's stand on disarmament, the Formosa Straits war threat and the release of five imprisoned Americans. Ambassadorial talks between US and Chinese envoys at the Polish capital are the slender thread of political contact between Washington and Peking. The Kennedy administration intends to keep this line of communications open and thereby demonstrate that it does not ignore the existence of the world's biggest nation, officials said. Soon after coming into office, the Kennedy administration postponed a previously scheduled meeting between US Ambassador Jacob Beam and Chinese Ambassador Wang Ping-nao in order to allow time for Beam to go with a full understanding of Kennedy's China policy to the meeting, which is now scheduled for March 7. No basic changes have resulted from the China policy review here, officials said. The newsmen exchange initiative is considered a small step in that direction. Mr Beam's instructions were not disclosed. Last year he pressed Mr Wang to accept an arrangement which could have resulted in an exchange of permits to Chinese and US reporters, as the Chinese had demanded. But Mr Wang greeted this concord with another demand — that the United States find an exchange agreement which included a US acknowledgement of Peking's claim to Formosa. The United States rejected this. The Kennedy administration also intends to keep trying to get China to renounce the threat or use of war to take over Formosa. Foreign Minister Chen, in an interview with Japanese journalists last month, was quoted as saying, "we will soon start armed attacks … and will persist in claiming Formosa". He has refused repeatedly to sign a non-war pledge, contending that Formosa is a Chinese internal affair.