Convocation on US-China Relations, Senator Edward Kennedy

robert perry speaking to you live on the east an educational radio network as we continue giving coverage of the national committee on united states china relations we're back in the grand ballroom of the new york hilton hotel in manhattan just very few moments we should be hearing keynote address of his first day session by senator edward m kennedy of massachusetts let's go immediately now down to the roster we will begin with mr samberg july law people will live on the learning i'm wondering people well the law doesn't stand for or struggle for will stay and i'm

stepping out to the podium as the chairman conference of investment and less sharp than harvard university harry about what they call a journey of the majority and others worry about what they call the tyranny of the minority but all japanese or to be worrying about the journey of the mass media and so should we have well it makes no difference whether you get a dinner tonight or nah the next ones what to say what is important is that it must be said at being a cop so be on television my function is very small one for madison police state that were tremendously on air an extremely fortunate that mr johnny

rocco a third as our chairman for this meeting i'm not going to say that the straw color needs no introduction and honestly quite the country is so well known that he doesn't need an introduction for this occasion because you all know so much about is very broad services to mankind services that have made his name virtually synonymous with the word starts with you may not be aware of is long and intimate and constructive involvement and role in american cultural issues with asia i first became aware of that when i was invited to what has since become the famous or infamous state department roundtable discussion on china in nineteen forty nine and the gentleman seated beside me introduced himself as john rocker and then on various other occasions i

found myself sitting beside mr rockwell or because it just happens that these names are all mine are we so we're always partners in that way as we are obviously and subsequent year is the straw poll are served as a special consultant john foster dulles for cultural matters and the current japanese peace treaty he's got a man of the involvement in the calculation shifted japan that led to his revival my mom probably save the founding of the japan society in nineteen fifty two in nineteen fifty six he created another very important saw it and i'm like as relations with asia and that is asia society and in japan he created the international house of japan in tokyo in nineteen forty five which is served as a really important line not only between japan and the united states agree

but between japan and the outside were and he created a similar institution in any a close connection with china goes back far beyond my one or not he served as many years has just to china medical board which stood behind the experiment and adventure and intercultural unscientific cooperation between nations me reaching union medical call us from the start been a strong supporter at the national committee on united states china relations we're in the extremely fortunate that of our german with john d rockefeller the pain professor reinhardt sen kennedy

and this thing was yes i for your gracious introduction and thank you also for the opportunity to rethink my longtime conviction namely that responsible public discussion is essential but the building of the more viable relationship between our people and the people of china i mean take a moment before introducing artist english speaker i want to pay tribute to the important work of the national committee i'm united states china relations the sponsorship of this conference which brings together so many eminent adolescents because it's only one example of the committee's continuing achievements show ladies and there was no health providers for the former base on which to assess the china problem and to determine how best to our country and find a reasonable modus vivendi with the world's

most populous nation almost like a naive young families and frustrations in this problem what we find hauling to accept it really is levy's difficulties have managed to our lives our process is a creative thinking we can look back and what now seems like a golden age in our relationship with china from the time opera the consul general arrived in the seventeen eighties up until the nineteen thirties throughout that century not our nation to join a growing sense of friendship an exchange yet the relationship was essentially superficial despite many significant and genuine humanitarian acts as a nation we did not really come to know china and the people and then china's agony began

nearly forty years later it is still going on for the past twenty years we have had no relationship with mainland china whatsoever during this time we are thinking about that great country has been dominated by a year so much so that in the race many regarded as virtually treasonable to even raise a question about rethinking china parts of the sort of rigidity there's no place in a democracy we must not only understand china better but we must also understand follow these we must come to think openly in terms of research and an enlightened self interest it's much easier to criticize past and present policies towards china than it is to improve that perhaps these policies basically reflected the national mood

but what was missing was open and courageous to beg i believe that the time for reexamination of our policies is now we must not shrink from questioning or formula is what ties which had seemed to be service well in the past i fervently hope that we have passed through the shadows of fear and i'm ready to think constructively about the future and that is why we are here at this conference haley it is time for a new lock will in introducing i speaker i confess i am not a lot as to whether i should couple him with a phrase like the new look considering that he has been an active participant on the american scene for a full decade and jack words like cute

and courage comradely to mind particularly at a time when the questioning thurber of our younger men and women is prompting the older generation to re examined many of its comfortable assumptions it has been increasingly clear that like the ball he lives to sail senator kennedy thrives on a fresh breeze in what he says and what he does he he is clearly committed to the search for new directions and more reasonable solutions to the problems that basis in the years ahead writing about asian the senator has the emotions surrounding the issue of china has rendered the democratic process of debate largely immobile now the time for dialogue has become the purpose of this

conference could not be more effectively express but enough for me you came here tonight to see and hear the senate so in the knowledge that if i were biographical review with bitcoin developers i give you my guest of honor senator edward m kennedy crowd cried rockefeller him in right sheryl this as lindsay use kind enough to join us here this evening

or distinguished guests at the head table in our panelists and chairman of the panel's only say what a pleasure and an honor it is to be here this evening and i want to wear thank him at rockefeller for his very kind introduction his son aj in iraq most contemporaries in the public life and were good friends and i told cheney recently that if i had a name like he is the peak ivan discussed china with president nixon sometime back i recommended to him that we should have diplomatic relations with china are an open and empty making and he said you do it if i would accept ambassadorship for them to

pay you'll notice i am at that recommendation to not say a privilege for me to be invited to address this distinguished audience of scholars and public leaders be much more appropriate if i would sit and listen to you i see him any person from whom i've learned a great deal about policies in a i'd been to professor right cows embassy in tokyo in his office at harvard i'm chairing this conference he's continuing a lifetime of service and white men that includes work as one of president kennedy's most effective than that so it is doubtful that i would tell you anything tonight that you do not already know it's a defiant other senators who have spoken can get wider public exposure to the need for change in our china policy and cooperation between the men a scholarship from the men a public affairs will help the nation once again this conference is one of the most important public

sessions on china policy and recently is that the loan is extremely significant the time at which his conference is being held is also significant riff we have a hope that communist regime in china would disappear our hope is in ruins today as thousands of chinese soldiers and gates russian border troops in the continuing struggle by two powerful nations for domination of the world communist movement thousands of american soldiers are dying and yet ma'am in a land war in asia whose purpose we are told is the containment of china demonstrations against american bases in japan open no knowledge it is billed in part to contain china the foundation of japan the shadow of take a and stock over the discussions about another virtually every conference we attend on arms control the success of the nuclear proliferation treaty on

which the ink is hardly dry but ends in a lot calmer but as a nation of china if we have a hope that somehow our relations with china could be stabilized at a point of rigid hostility without domestic sacrifice our hope was dead when we were told last week by our government we must now spend seven billion dollars as a down payment to protect our missiles and our nation from nuclear attack like china it is for these reasons that i consider this conference and what can come from it so important to the foreign policy of our nation it is imperative that the issues you've discussed so long become a part of the national agenda of the united states for almost twenty years the united states has pursued the same unyielding policy of military containment diplomatic isolation towards communist china all of the ballot that policy may have seen for the cold war the fifties is yemen demonstrably false in the sixties

and must not be carried into the seventies every new administration has a new opportunity to rectify the errors of the past needs such opportunity consists in law taught of the precious gift of time i'm in which the good intentions of the government are presumed time in which the normal complex of politics are suspended time in which the new government has a chance to show it is not tied to the policies of its predecessor if the new administration allows this time to pass without new initiatives if it allows inherited policies to russia unimpeded the warm air corps will of wasted this opportunity it will compromise the promises it made to the american people and west of all it were disappointed the hopes and the expectations of the world this is especially true in vietnam there is growing impatience with the continuing

loss of american life in the seeming prostration of our hopes for reduction of the american commitment the advent of the new administration of ford's a moment of hope for millions of americans and vietnamese is a moment that will not long be with us the same opportunities as for our policies throughout asia that is why it is all the more important that you have been involved in the formulation and evaluation of those policies both in private life and public life be here at this time to charge your recommendations for twenty years i china policy has been a war policy far too long we have carried out possible measures political diplomatic an economic antagonism towards one of the world's most important nations we must now begin to turn away from our policy of warm pursue a policy of peace we must seek a new policy not because of any supposed weakness in our present posture or because we are soft on china because it is in our national interest in the

interest of all nations why its sheer size and population china deserves a major place in the work as a nuclear power and the nation of seven hundred and fifty million citizens likely to exceed one day and by the nineteen eighties china demands a voice in world efforts to deal with moms controlling population control with asian security and international economic development of all the great issues of our time yet sixteen years after the end of the korean war we do not trade with china we have no scientific or cultural exchanges we oppose the representative of china or in the united nations we refused to give any sort of diplomatic recognition to the communist regime on the mainland and continue to recognize the nationalist regime of chiang kai shek on taiwan as the government or china instead of developing ways to coexist which honored piece we assume china will attack us

as soon as she can and we prepare to spend billions to meet that threat why some cruel paradox an entire generation of young americans young chinese have grown the maturity with their countries in a state of suspended war or one another tragically the world's oldest civilizations in the world's most modern civilization world's most populous nation and the world's richest and most powerful nations player at each other across the abyss of nuclear war the division between us goes back to american support the chinese nationalist regime during world war two and to the immediate post war struggle between the communists and the nationalists in the beginning our policy was uncertain the communist gain power over the mainland in nineteen forty nine between then and the outbreak of the korean war nineteen fifty united states seemed to be preparing to accept the fact that chinese revolution author the retreat of the nationalist to taiwan

our government refused to go to their aid and reviews plays the american seventh fleet in the taiwan strait prevent a communist takeover of the island do so we said would be to intervene in the domestic civil war between the communists and the nationalists this policy was fully debated by the congress and the public the commonest rise to power we recognize we can do nothing to change we anticipated that we would soon adjust to the new asian reality by establishing relations with the communist regime this situation changed overnight on june twenty fifth nineteen fifty north korea attacked south korea failing that the attack or shadow the commonest offensive throughout asia united states or to the seventh fleet the taiwan strait and sent large amounts of military aid to weak nationalist government on the island the communist the meaning was clear we would use for tonight i want to the new mainland government you know the

communists nationalists agree the island was chinese shortly thereafter in response to the attempt of our forces to bring down the north korean government by driving toward the chinese border china ended the korean war with hindsight most experts agree the chinese action in korea was essentially defensive response launch to prevent the establishment of a hostile government on her board the time however the issue with far less clear the request of the united states the united nations formerly planted china as an aggressor the stigma that rankles takings leaders even today why we for the chinese and career we carried out a series of political and economic actions against their country we imposed a total embargo on all american trade with the mainland we froze pay a king's assets in the united states we demanded that our allies limited trade with china we conducted espionage and sabotage operation against the mainland supported similar efforts by the

nationals we bet began to reconstruct a chain of bases circling china with american military power including nuclear weapons is not my purpose here to question the merits of the actions we talk while fighting china are in korea we all remember the climate of those times in the great concern of our country we chinese military actions today however sixteen years after the korean armistice was signed we have taken almost no significant steps to abandon our posture or or towards china and to develop relations piece let us look at our policy from the viewpoint of taking china's leaders see the united states supporting the nationalist pretends to be the government of the mainland they see thousands of american military personnel on taiwan american warships god the waters between the mainland and taiwan makin nuclear bases and submarines ring the periphery of china the united

states supports nationalist you two flights over the mainland as well as nationalist road rage and espionage hundreds of thousands of american soldiers are fighting in viet nam contain china macro weiss constant diplomatic and political pressure that night taking a seat in the united nations deny a diplomatic recognition by the nations of the world to deny freedom of trade return on your watch it for china and now we prepare the bill about stadium system protect ourselves against china light of all these facts what chinese leader would dare to propose anything with the deep this hostility toward the united states respect to the atm question i strongly oppose the many reasons to the deployment of the pentagon says the purpose of the present discussion about one of its most significant drawbacks is that it is likely the scene and taking as a new military provocation

by the united states are overwhelming nuclear arsenal already provides adequate deterrence against any to temptation by taking gauge the first strike against the united states from the chinese perspective the only utility of an american adm system is to defend the united states against whatever feeble response taking could muster after an american for a strike against china far from returning aggression by china therefore appointment of the atm system will simply ed few lot more like posture towards john it will increase chinese fears of american attack and will encourage chinese leaders who bought a new status in the development of their nuclear capability apart from the technical and other policy objections that exists against the atm system i believe it makes no sense from the standpoint of a rational asia policy for an hour in large part are continuing

hostility towards china after the korean war was arrested on a hope that is now obviously forewarned of hope that under a policy of military containment and political isolation the communist regime on the mainland would be a passing phenomenon and would eventually be repudiated by the chinese people few of us today have any serious doubt that communism is permanent for the forseeable future on the mainland there is no believable prospect of chiang kai shek and the nationalists were returned of how they are however regrettable we may regard that that surely in the entire history of american foreign policy there has been no fiction more powerfully observer an artificial position the communist china does not exist for twenty years the nationalists have control only the two million chinese and eleven million taiwanese on the island of taiwan one hundred miles from the mainland of china how long will we continue to insist the rulers of taiwan are

also the rows of the hundreds of millions of chinese on the millions of square miles of the mainland it is as though the island of dubow with the claims sovereignty over the entire continent of north america the folly of our present policy of isolating china china is matched by its utility almost all other nations have adjusted to the reality of china for years a cane as had extensive diplomatic and commercial and culture relations with a number of the nations of the world including many of our closest allies outside the united nations our policy of quarantine towards china has failed to the extent that the communist regime is isolated all it is isolated lot like leah china's own choosing and not as a consequence of any effective american policy our actions toward china arrested on the premise that the people's republic as an

illegitimate evil expenses regime must be contained until it collapses or at least begins to behave in conformity with american interests secretary estate dallas was the foremost exponent of this moralistic you carrying it to the extent that even refused to shake hands which owen like the geneva conference of nineteen fifty four that slide has not been forgotten ms regime was said to be a legitimate because we claimed that had been imposed on the supposedly and receptive chinese people by agents of the soviet union communist china according to this view was a mere soviet satellite one assistant secretary in the state department called in a soviet magical suggesting that china's new leaders were no more independent and where the chinese puppets japan installed in manchuria in the nineteen thirties this evaluation grossly exaggerated the extent to which soviet eight was responsible for the communist takeover

china and extends events of the past decade actually confirmed by the intense hostility of the current or a clash or bees have shattered the myth of soviet domination of china communist regime was said to be evil because of the great violence and deprivation of freedom that it inflicted on millions of people we'll post its rise to power obviously we cannot condone the appalling cost in human life and suffering of the chinese revolution yet in many other cases we have recognized revolutionary regimes especially when the period of revolutionary access as possible even in the case of the soviet union united states weighed only sixteen years to normalize relations with the revolutionary government but unfortunately we have tended to focus exclusively on the course of the chinese revolution we've ignored the historical conditions that have altered and the social economics games

it produced we have ignored the fact that the nationalists are also engaged in repressive measures deprivation to freedom not only during their tenure on the mainland but also on taiwan we have created a false image of a struggle between free china are and red china between good and evil you knock on perspective and a greater understanding of revolutionary change that has come with time we can now afford a more dispassionate accurate review of the chinese revolution there is the charge the communist regime is an expansion of power bottom it is his view that has given rise to a containment policy in asia the enormous sacrifices that has entailed chaka khan this regime is expansionist has meant different things at different times on occasion american spokesman of conjured up the image of the golden horde of yo yo yo poe that would swoop down over at today

most leaders in washington and for a more responsible rhetoric and if the russians will graduate this image of china virtually no expert on china or expect a cane to commit aggression in the conventional sense of forcibly occupied the territory of another country as the soviet union recently occupied in czechoslovakia such action as an accord with the overpass chinese actions or the present chinese capabilities despite their ideological bombast chinese economists have in fact been extremely cautious about risking military involvement since the korean war came oil crisis of the nineteen fifties nineteen sixty two clash with india were carefully limited engagement the struggle over tibet is widely regarded as a reassertion of traditional chinese jurisdiction over that remote area china has not use force to protect the overseas chinese disturbances in grammar malaysia an indonesian

canadian air force a small skinny the transporter troops supplied him across long distances and difficult terrain of a prolonged war of aggression obviously our concern today is not so much the danger of direct chinese aggression as the danger of indirect approach based on chinese efforts to subvert existing governments and replace them with governments friendly aka yet until vietnam leaped to our mass of involvement in southeast asia making enjoyed only very limited success and its attempts to foster wallace of national liberation war china are of course will claim to play a role where a political instability occurs in asia or africa or even latin america it's record of subversion is unimpressive on the basis of the past and it's very likely that nations whose government work for equality and social justice for the people we'll be able to overcome any threat of chinese subversion for the more we can

expect the time i'm moderate china's revolutionary zero experience with the soviet union and eastern european communist nation suggests more fully china has brought into the world community the greater will be the pressure to behave like a nation state rather than a revolutionary pow ironically it is communist china's former teacher the soviet union is now determined to prevent any moderation of chinese american hostility we cannot accept at face value the current soviet image of china the soviets have fought different interests in asia and we do although we must persist in our efforts to achieve wider agreement with moscow we must not allow the russians to make continuing hostility toward taking the price of futures soviet american cooperation rather than re taught our relations with moscow in washington taking all my well provide the soviet union with a badly needed incentive to improve relations

with us again we must not however regard relations with taking in moscow as an either or proposition most tried to improve relations with boats must be alert therefore to any opportunity offered by the escalating hostility between china and the soviet union we use our own patient tensions with those nations both of us chinese and americans alike are prisoners of the passions of the past what we need now and in the decades ahead is liberation from those that given the history of our past relations with china or it is unrealistic to expect a king to take the initiative it is our obligation we have the great and powerful nation we should not condition our approach on a favorable action or change of attitude five aka russ to begin the policy a peace be a

credit to our history and our place in the world are there to continue our president park will lead only to for the hostility and the real possibility of mutual destruction of course we must not delude ourselves even if the united states moves towards an enlightened china policy foreseeable prospects are moderating chinese american tensions are not right it is said there is no basis for hope so long as the current generation of communist chinese leaders remain about this may well be true that a king's invitation last november to resume the warsaw talks although now withdrawn suggest the possibility that china's policy may change more rapidly than outside observer as you now anticipate that we must remember to the regime in taking is no mall or as the upheavals of the great leap forward in the cultural revolution of show china's leaders are divided by conflicting views and pressures for change

we must seek to influence such change in a favorable direction you can do so by ensuring that reasonable options for improved relations with the united states are always available the pickings moderate or less extreme leaders steps we take you be taking soon even now the deterioration of chinese soviet relations in the wake of the recent border clashes maybe stimulating at least some of the leaders and a cane woody re evaluate their posture towards the united states provide us with an extraordinary opportunity to break the bonds well distrust in what can we do to hasten the next opportunity many of us here tonight are already on record as favoring a more positive step we must actively encouraged china to adopt a change in attitude or which we now simply wait we must act now to make clear to the chinese and to the world that the responsibility for the present impasse no longer lived with us first and most important we should

reclaim our willingness to adapt to a new policy towards china policy a peace not war policy that abandons the old slogans braces today's reality and encourages tomorrow is a possibility we should make clear that we regard china as a legitimate power and control the mainland entitled to full participation as an equal member of the world community to a decent regard for its own security what we must do is emphasize to china and our military posture is purely defensive and that we stand ready at all times to work towards improvement in our relations second we should attempt to reconvene the warsaw talks the time the court's work and so i wrote the secretary state asking the administration to make an urgent do whatever are established the contract we so nearly achieved it will also do so before the air of expectancy that hung over the talks is completely dissipate if the talks resume we should attempt to transform them into a more confidential and perhaps more significant

dialogue parties might meet on abortion at bases in their respective embassies reagan in their respective countries rather than the palace of the polish government whether or not the talks a resume or informal official and semi official conversation with china's leaders should be awkward the adoration unilaterally do away with the restrictions on travel and non strategic fray we should do all we can to promote exchanges of people and ideas from scientific and cultural programs and accessed by news media representatives trade we should replace john are on the same footing as the soviet union the communist nation's of eastern europe which office in trade delegations and even a resident trade mission to china receive chinese trade delegations in a chinese trade mission in this country we should welcome closer contact between china and the rest of the world rather than continue to exert pressure on our friends to isolate taking regime

for we should announce our willingness to reestablish the consular offices we maintained in the people's republic during the earliest period of communist rule we should welcome chinese consular officials in the united states consular relations so they trade and other contacts they frequently exists in the absence of diplomatic relations and often fade away for the establishment absurd relations if we should strive to win ball the chinese some serious arms control talks we should actively encourage them to begin to purchase of state in international conferences and we should seek out new opportunities to discuss asian security and other problems six we should say at the earliest opportunity to discuss with china's leaders the complex question of the establishment of full diplomatic relations the president we should continue our diplomatic relations with a nationalist regime and taiwan galaxy the people that

island against any portable takeover by the mainland speaking at this time the question of diplomatic russian nation seems to be on a politically later the question of whether we will withdraw all recognition from the nationalists and the question of whether taiwan is a part of the territory of china or pecan minister nationalist china claims taiwan as part time that our own government regards the status of the islands has undergone you know we maintain diplomatic relations with a nationalist we have failed to agree on solutions involving all the divided countries and peoples as in germany we cannot be competent of the greatest success in the matter i want they're a critical questions that simply cannot now beyonce will a minority regime of the chinese nationalists continue to control the islands taiwanese population will the taiwanese bridge it eventually transform the island's government for the exercise of self determination

will an accommodation be worked out between a future taiwan government the taking regime on the mainland the helpless at the kings' interest in negotiations should withdraw our token american military presence from taiwan mr melder ization of taiwan take place at no cost to our treaty commitments or to the security of the island yet it would help make clear that taking our desire for the communist the nationalists the taiwanese to reach a negotiated solution on the status of the island dramatic step like unilateral recognition that they came with probably be an empty gesture this time as the experience of france implies unilateral recognition of taking is not likely to be effective unless it is accompanied by withdrawal of our existing recognition of the nationalists and as the case of great britain suggests taking may insist on our recognition of the mainland claim to

taiwan before allowing us to establish full of acid oreo relations these problems will have to be negotiated we should move now to start the process seven without waiting for the resolution of a complex question of taiwan we should withdraw her opposition to making entry into the united nations of the representative of china not only in the general assembly but also on the security council and the other organs security council seat was granted to china or nineteen forty five in recognition of a great people were born a major part of the burden of world war two nearby making united nations possible it was not only way up with a particular political group that happen to be running the country at the time in addition we should work within the united nations to attempt to assure representation for the people on taiwan will reflect the island's government status

maybe the chinese nationalist can continue to enjoy a seat in the jet with general assembly riff an independent republic of taiwan emerges that might be admitted into the united nations as a new state possibly have a political accommodation is reached between the communist regime on the mainland in the government on i want the people of taiwan might be represented in the united nations as an autonomous unit of china from its inception united nation has displayed remarkable flexibility in adjusting to political realities there are many possible solutions to the china problem in the united nations about insisting on anyone we should move now to free the united nations to undertake a long delayed process adjusting to the reality of the people's republic of china we should clearly indicated taking our willingness to discuss these questions in dealing with the problems of diplomatic recognition and united

nations representation i placed primary emphasis on the need to initiate discussions with taking in these areas since it is impossible to predict when of how the chinese will respond to a change in american policy we cannot maintain a podcast position on these questions we cannot afford to close any options by endorsing details themes of this time what we can do however is act now on the broad range of initiatives i've mentioned to make clear to pay came that our views are not rigid on even the most difficult issues that have divided us of italy in recent years we have to be patient a king's initial reaction to our serious initiatives mr koppell probably won't refuse by laying the groundwork now for an improved relationship in the seventies and beyond we will be offering the present and future leaders and taking clear an attractive alternative to the existing impasse in our relations

many outstanding of bodies and china are here tonight perhaps i can sum up my central theme in terms that you might find appropriate according to chinese tradition model confucian gentleman was talk that whenever involved in the dispute you should first examine his own behavior as himself with a wreath they have some responsibility for the dispute and take the initiative to try to arrive at a harmonious settlement may prove futile for us to follow this advice when dealing with chinese claim to reject many of china's great traditions we will never know unless we try and nothing changes we americans will have to live the consequence of alms and fear and war we owe ourselves we all the future a heavy obligation drop app