Evening star., 1950-01-16
The Conduct of Peipinq

Coming on the heels of other outrageous
incidents like the mistreatment of Ameri-
can Consul General Angus Ward at Muk-
den, the Chinese Communist seizure of
part of our consular property at Peiping
can hardly be interpreted as anything less
than deliberate move on the part of the
Mao Tze-tung regime to break off all con-
tact between itself and official representa-
tives of the United States.
That this is so seems obvious from the
nature of events leading up to the seizure.
AS soon as the State Department got word
of what was in the wind, it instructed Con-
sui General Club to impress upon the
Communist authorities at Peiping that the
United States would take an extremely
grave view of any such violation of the
treaties of 1901 and 1943. It also enlisted
the good offices of the British in making
the same point emphatically clear to the
Red regime. In addition, and most impor-
tant of all, it warned that if the property
were taken, the United States would i'm
mediately order-as it has now done-the
complete withdrawal of its consular per-
Sonnel from the entire mainland of China.
Accordingly, in contemptuously brushing
aside our repeated protests and our unmis-
taxable warning the Chinese Communists
have in effect served notice, or so it seems,
that the thing we have warned about is the
very thing that they have wanted to
achieve-namely, total isolation of them
selves from us and of us from them. Un-
neutrality-suspicious. for reasons involving
a desire to make us lose "face" or to deprive
us of listening posts-they and their Mos
cow masters are convinced that they have
much to gain from following this line of
action. Be that as it may, however, the
whole business adds up to a mystery of
sorts for the average Western mind, par
ticularly because of the difficulty of recon-
Cling such abominable international con-
duct with puppet Peiping's apparent
anxiety to win universal recognition as the
only legitimate government of China.
Needless to say, in invading and seizing our
consular property, the Chinese Communists
have blasted away whatever possibility
there might have been of our establishing
diplomatic relations with them in the rela-
lively near future. Certainly, they could
not have thought of better move-short
Va oOAAlC dIt VI NlOlc1lCC-CU increase ana
harden American hostility toward them.
Moreover, in doing what they have done,
they probably have further alienated the
numerous other Western powers whose
hesitancy about recognizing them ought
now to be intensified. 1t labors the obvi-
Gus to say that all this seems puzzling in
the extreme when coupled with the Soviet
Unions truculent efforts in the Security
Council to have China's Nationalist dele
cation expelled from the United Nations to
make room for Mao's Reds
But although the situation thus consti-
tutes striking example of the kind of baf-
fling trouble to be expected these days from
the Communist-ridden mysterious east, we
can be sure that the men of the Kremlin
and their obedient agents in Peiping are
quite clear in their own minds about what
they are trying to accomplish by making
1t virtually impossible for us, or for any
other self-respecting nation, to have de-
cent relations with them. The reasons for
their attitude may be obscure to all except
themselves, but we can be certain of one
thing: They are out to do us no good, and
our policy-in Asia as elsewhere-must be
shaped accordingly.