Newsweek (2/25/79) published this letter from James Soong: "I was distressed by Newsweek's reporting of the Kaohsiung incident. The point of view of your article is that of the rioters; the point of view of the government and security forces is completely unrepresented.
"Linda Gail Arrigo, the American wife of Shih Ming-teh, one of the riot ringleaders, is quoted as expressing the belief that her husband had been sentenced and possibly executed. This is wholly untrue. Newsweek made no attempt to ascertain the facts. The rioters were arrested for acts of violence, not for their political views, but Newsweek writes of their political platform and not what they did. Shih is said to have discovered that the government is building a new jail and Newsweek adds that it was apparently intended for 'another influx of political prisoners.' In fact, the new jail is intended to improve the lot of prisoners already in custody. The riot took place when demonstrators attacked police after a rally. One hundred and eighty-three security personnel were injured seriously, but not one single rioter was hurt. In order to avert bloodshed, the police covered themselves with their shields and did not strike back.
"Here in the Republic of China the people have rallied behind the government in this case. The rioters and Linda Arrigo have no sympathizers that I know of, other than those in their own small ranks. Those arrested soon will come to trial in open court. I hope Newsweek will show greater objectivity in covering the trial than it did in covering the commission of the crime." (Full text)
Herald Tribune — Questionable tactics
The Herald Tribune of Paris (2/16-17/80) published this article by Kenneth Reich from Lake Placid, N.Y.: "In a rare display of disharmony within the International Olympic Committee, both IOC President Lord Killanin and Monique Berlioux, the executive director, have been accused of resorting to questionable tactics on the issue of Chinese participation in the Games.
"Not a word about the recriminations expressed in the closed IOC discussions this week dealing with the exclusion of Taiwanese athletes and the admission of a team from the People's Republic of China surfaced here in the IOC's press briefings.
"But, according to Lance Cross of New Zealand, a member of the IOC executive board who has emerged as something of a dissenter against the leadership of Lord Killanin and Miss Berlioux, there were angry exchanges within the meetings relating to how the two succeeded in getting a majority of members to reverse themselves last year on the China issue.
"In the annual IOC session last April in Montevideo, the committee's general membership insisted on sticking to a two-China approach, with the People's Republic welcome to begin participation in the Olympics only if it was ready to accept the continued participation of Taiwan under its Republic of China flag.
"But six months later, after a poll by mail, the membership voted 62-17 to admit the (mainland) Chinese and to exclude Taiwan unless the Taiwanese team was willing to change its national flag, national anthem, and Olympic emblem and call itself the representative of the 'Chinese-Taipei Olympic Committee.'
"According to Mr. Cross, there were two important ways in which Lord Killanin and Miss Berlioux, who were committed to bringing (Red) China into the Olympics and getting Taiwan out, prejudiced the results of the postal poll.
"First, in a covering letter, Lord Killanin informed the membership that the IOC executive board, meeting in October in Nagoya, Japan, had been unanimous in recommending the new approach. This, Mr. Cross said, was not true. He said that he had voted against the change in the executive board meeting.
"Second, Miss Berlioux, in sending out the postal ballot, included with it a U.S. State Department letter that strongly implied that the U.S. government favored the admission of (Red) China and the exclusion of Taiwan from the Olympics.
"Mr. Cross said that he believed that sending the ballot along with one-sided supporting documents was a perversion of a democratic vote. The IOC general membership was unduly influenced, he charged.
"At least two other IOC members, Julian Roosevelt of the United States and Alejandro Rivera Bascur of Chile, have been identified as raising questions in the closed session about Lord Killanin's and Miss Berlioux's tactics. At one point, according to reports from two sources, the questioning was so pointed that Lord Killanin felt compelled to admit that he had passed along incorrect information to the membership.
"The use by the IOC leaders of the State Department letter is also interesting, observers noted, in light of Lord Killanin's repeated statements in recent weeks that politics should not intrude on sports and that government influence on the IOC in the matter of postponing, canceling or moving the Olympics from Moscow this summer ought to be resisted." (Partial text)
Time — Sharp contrast
Time (2/25/79) published this article: " ...Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping brought last year's democratic experiments to a sad finale by demanding in January that the constitutional right to put up wall posters be abolished. But most (mainland) Chinese were paying more heed to other moves by Peking that promise to transform their material lives.
"The effects are already evident: the appearance of 'free' markets in which peasants can set their own prices for the produce they sell. This measure amounts to a transfer of wealth from the city to rural areas. By allowing the peasants to earn more money, the government is providing incentives for higher agricultural productivity. Shanghai now has 56 such markets; it had none two years ago. Bustling and lively, they offer fresh vegetables, chickens and crabs and small handmade items. Says one city official: 'We're developing a kind of cottage industry.'
"The drive toward market economics has had bizarre results. A restaurant in Manchuria, miffed at the government's niggardly allocation of dog meat, began buying directly from the public. Enthusiastic (mainland) Chinese sold 1,369 dogs to the restaurant in one month.
"Another new policy, just now taking hold, is a tough population control program. Couples having only one child are given rewards ranging from higher pay to top-of-the-list treatment for scarce housing. Couples with three or more children face such penalties as having their pay reduced 10%...
"(Red) China's trade grew to nearly $30 billion last year ... Overall economic growth this year is expected to match last year's 8%. Progress, however, has been slow in joint-venture schemes with foreign companies in (Red) China. Even the plants already in operation are having difficulties. Two huge steel-rolling mills built with West German and Japanese help in Wuhan have been hampered by lack of sufficient electricity. Work on another steel mill, near Shanghai, was delayed because the site was on too soft soil and hence unstable for construction.
"The Chinese (Communist) economy remains desperately backward. Peasants constitute 80% of the 1 billion population. Most live in small houses of mud bricks and can claim, on average, only $6.40 in the bank...
"Taiwan could summon more excuses for pessimism than most jittery nations. Almost bereft of diplomatic status, the island maintains normal relations principally with such exotic pieces of real estate as Tonga and the Vatican. Saudi Arabia, South Africa and South Korea are the only nations of substance that still keep embassies in Taipei.
"Yet Taiwan's links with the world are built solidly on trade — a total of $31 billion last year, more than that of the People's Republic of China, whose population is 60 times greater. Trade has propelled Taiwan to first place among developing countries. Per capita income reached $1,720 last year, and the Taiwanese have learned how to spend it. They travel abroad, buy increasing numbers of cars and color TV sets, and eat better than all other Asians except the Japanese. But the Taiwanese have paid a price. With, for example, 40,000 more cars on Taipei's streets this year than last, traffic congestion and pollution are at their worst...
"Mainly because of the anticipated slowdown in the industrialized countries this year, Taiwan's growth will taper to 6.5% in 1980, down from last year's 8%, despite a 40% increase in labor productivity since 1976. But the less-than-vigorous outlook has not dampened traditional Taiwanese bustle. Japan's Nissan Motors and Taiwan's Yue Loong Motors plan to build 200,000 cars annually in Taiwan, half of these for export." (Partial text)
Japan Times — Dangerous 'card'
The Japan Times (1/28/80) published this article by Stanley Karnow from Washington: "After admitting that he has been naive about the Soviet Union for three years, Jimmy Carter now seems to be displaying a similar kind of innocence toward (Red) China. And his approach to Beijing also could prove to be a formula for disaster.
"The administration's new reach to the Chinese (Communists) was stated a couple of weeks ago in Beijing by Secretary of Defense Harold Brown, who expressed the hope that the 'global strategic relationship' between the United States and (Red) China would 'broaden and deepen' in the face of their common hostility toward the Soviet Union.
"But that objective, in my opinion, is fraught with hazards. For the so-called '(Red) China cards,' which the Carter administration has been yearning to play against the Russians since its formal recognition of Beijing last year, is hardly an ace of spades. Backing the Chinese (Communists) against the Soviet Union, therefore, could be dangerous.
"This is not to deny that the United States and (Red) China share a parallel interest in discouraging Soviet designs in South Asia. It would be risky, however, for the United States to commit itself to the cause of the Chinese (Communists) in their larger dispute with the Russians.
"Such a commitment could draw the United States into a war of enormous dimensions should a big Sino-Soviet conflict erupt. It also could involve the United States again in Southeast Asia if tensions between (Red) China and Vietnam break out in renewed fighting.
"A closer security link with Belling makes it more difficult as well for the United States to improve its ties with the Russians in the event that they retreat to a more moderate stance in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
"Most significantly, it is an illusion to believe that (Red) China can serve as a real counterweight to the Soviet Union in a triangular power game. As Brown himself observed during his trip, the Chinese (Communist) military machine is obsolete. Its modernization would cost more than either the United States or (Red) China could afford.
"A realistically prudent view of the prospects for military cooperation between the United States and (Red) China is held by the Pentagon professionals, who estimated in a secret study made last year that giving the Chinese (Communists) a 'confident capability' to defend themselves against the Soviet Union would cost between $41 billion and $63 billion.
"The study recently was leaked to Drew Middleton of the New York Times, presumably in an attempt to dampen the notion that a U.S. military aid program to (Red) China is a plausible undertaking.
"According to Pentagon experts, (Red) China lacks the capacity to handle a large-scale infusion of modem arms, even if they were provided by the United States. As the study puts it, (Red) China's 'relatively unsophisticated common soldiers' probably are unable to maintain even low technology.' Besides, (Red) China's needs are tremendous.
"Bringing its forces up to date, the study calculates, would require from 3,000 to 8,600 new medium tanks, some 10,000 armored personnel carriers, roughly 20,000 heavy trucks, 6,000 air-to-air missiles, 720 mobile surface-to-air missile launchers and, among other equipment, 240 fighter-bomber aircraft.
"In addition, the backward Chinese (Communist) economy would have to be expanded and modernized in order to sustain a rise in the level of the country's military effectiveness . . .
"It is questionable whether President Carter is listening to the cautious counsel of the professionals. True, he had ruled out the delivery of weapons to (Red) China for the present. But, by supplying Beijing with a ground satellite facility that has been denied to the Soviet Union, he is signing that he may be prepared to go further in underwriting the Chinese (Communist) militarily.
"Expedients contrived to meet immediate crises have a way of becoming long-range policies. Thus the courtship of (Red) China, initiated in order to exert pressure on the Russians in the current confrontation, could develop into a marriage that, over time, may jeopardize rather than strengthen genuine U.S. aims." (Partial text)